The UCLA 2016 football season starts drawing tens of thousands of fans to the Rose Bowl Stadium this week.<\/p>\n
Jim Mora and the Bruins play their first home game against UNLV this Saturday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Rose Bowl draws a potential crowd of 92,542, and UCLA ticket sales to those diehard fans play a crucial part in the stadium\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bruins are critical to our success,\u201d said Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn. \u201cThey will be playing their 35th year at our stadium and we are proud to be their home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunn said with this season\u2019s lineup, he expects the games against Stanford and USC to draw the highest attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UCLA-USC game is by far the biggest game due to it being the best rivalry in college sports,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cWe always have both Bruins and Trojans fans at the Rose Bowl and it is an incredible atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pasadena neighborhoods also feel the effects from football game crowds, but not always in a positive way.<\/p>\n
Bill Urban, president of the West Pasadena Residents Association, says in the past he\u2019s noticed the impact mainly on the East side of the neighborhood. He said often vendors sell on the street corners where they\u2019re not supposed to. However, he thinks this year might be different because of the Rose Bowl\u2019s new Arroyo Seco Music and Arts Festival coming June 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rose Bowl has been putting a lot of effort into improving things in anticipation of their music festival,\u201d Urban said. \u201cSo I would expect things to get better, we expect to see improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban said one thing that would be helpful is for residents to call the Rose Bowl hotline at (626) 397-4141 to report any concerns on gameday.<\/p>\n
However, crowds can be a good thing for the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does bring a lot of visitors and those visitors stay in the hotels, eat in the restaurants, shop in the shops, spend money in Pasadena which we appreciate very much,\u201d said Pasadena Chamber of Commerce President Paul Little. \u201c[The Bruins] also play those out of conference games and depending on who they\u2019re playing, that can draw people from other parts of the country<\/p>\n
Little said last year\u2019s football games helped boost the economy, and he expects this year to be the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cUCLA always brings an economic impact to Pasadena and it\u2019s very difficult to measure one year over the next,\u201d Little said. \u201cJust having them here playing in the Rose Bowl is a very positive thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n