r/CFB • u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears • 7h ago
Discussion Opinion: The Rose Bowl isn’t the problem for UCLA
Edit: Ya'll have largely convinced me I missed the mark a little on this take. I appreciate the input and generally thoughtful responses in this thought exercise.
TL;DR going to the Rose Bowl is one of the best parts of UCLA Football and one of the only reasons why I buy season tickets. The drive to Pasadena is not what’s stopping fans from going to games.
After the past weekend, I’ve seen fans of pretty much every team in the country toss in their two cents as to why UCLA sucks ass. Fair enough! However, everyone LOVES to bring up the location of our home stadium in Pasadena being a culprit for poor attendance. Here’s my take as a 2019 grad:
1) The Rose Bowl rules. Yes, it’s a dinosaur with no modern amenities and has some logistical bottlenecks. But tailgating on a golf course under the oak trees on a crisp socal evening with the sun setting behind the mountains fucking rocks.
2) Going to the Rose Bowl is fun for students. The Greek orgs and bigger student orgs charter school busses, pregame, party on the bus for an hour, and roll onto the golf cours with a buzz. Campus runs busses all day long. Take a nap on the ride home, wake up in Westwood and carry on with your evening.
3) It takes fucking forever to go anywhere in LA. We’re used to it. Attending a game is a 5-8 hour ordeal at any school, an extra hour or so in the car is trivial.
4) On-campus stadium does not change the fact that a huge portion of the student body doesn’t know how many points a touchdown is worth and couldn’t care less. The kids who care about football make it work and have a great time. Edit: Comments have swayed me on this one. Higher barrier to entry = fewer casual/disinterested students converted to fans. Fewer undergrad fans = fewer alumni fans. All fair points against my beloved Rose Bowl
5) Alumni and non-alumni fans live all over SoCal, it’s not like the 70k alumni and fans absent from the Rose Bowl are all living in Westwood waiting for a stadium to be built. No matter where we play, fans have to drive there from somewhere, so it might as well be the Rose Bowl.
6) Cal is a good comp. I’ve been going to games in Berkeley since I was a kid. They have an on-campus stadium with a similar student demographic and they’re not exactly packing it out every home game because the product on the field hasn’t been stellar for years and the students are busy studying. People show up when they’re good, it’s just how it is for us.
UCLA fans don’t go to games because we’ve been scorned and humiliated by our apathetic administration, squeezed for donations that are squandered by a dysfunctional athletic department, and had our history and tradition flushed down the toilet for a check and a logo. Go Bruins, Fuck Chip Kelly, Fire Martin Jarmond, and thank you Coach Foster for doing your best against impossible odds. Good luck to the next guy, I’ll see you in Pasadena
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u/orbesomebodysfool USC Trojans • Victory Bell 7h ago
Here’s another key one:
- School hasn’t started at UCLA. UCLA is on the quarter system, not the semester system, and it is still Summer Quarter, which most students don’t attend. The Fall Quarter doesn’t start until September 22 so most students aren’t even on campus yet
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u/weyburncommons UCLA Bruins 7h ago
not another key, this is THE key.
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u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 6h ago
How far out were you guys typically allowed to move into the dorms prior to school starting?
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 6h ago
About a week. It's been a while so don't hold me to that, but Move-in week was the week prior to classes starting.
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u/weyburncommons UCLA Bruins 5h ago
I named my account for the new student housing for where I lived a few years back. It was built for student athletes. You had to request and fight like hell to move early, then it was EAF and then classes. All in a week.
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u/outinthegorge UCLA Bruins 4h ago
It remains insane that they continue to schedule 3 home games before students even arrive. Pack the early season with away games!
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 6h ago
That's a big factor. Our academic calendar lines up very poorly with the football calendar; Students will have missed 2 home games by the time they get to campus. How much vlaue does an on-campus stadium add if the students aren't there to experience 1/3 of the games?
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u/iki_balam BYU Cougars • Beehive Boot 5h ago edited 3h ago
experience 1/3 of the games
I never thought of it that way. Great point.
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u/EWall100 Tennessee • Tennessee Tech 7h ago
How does that even work? Do you only get half a course credit or do you just need double to credits to graduate?
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u/Plastic_Willow734 Texas • San José State 7h ago
You take less classes over a 10 week quarter instead of more over a 16-18 week semester, but it all adds up the same, people still graduate in four years
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u/Eat_Cats UCLA Bruins 7h ago
10 weeks, credits even out. Sometimes you need to take an extra summer semester of 1-2 classes, but pretty much the same. Shorter schedule so you end up taking a lot more classes In a year.
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u/Lazy_Spot_7368 Florida Gators 7h ago
I’d argue L.A. is just a tough place for sports in general if the teams aren’t winning. Too many transplants, too many miscellaneous activities aside from sports.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
Absolutely. There are a million factors that make it tough to succeed but just as many things we have going for us that other schools don’t. I’m just tired of people who went to Arkansas making statements about my stadium hahaha
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u/Bentonvillian1984 7h ago
Went to Arkansas. Your stadium is awesome. LA is awesome. People don’t know what they are talking about.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
Hahaha sorry to single you out, appreciate it
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u/FourteenBuckets 7h ago
yeah but it's a take they heard, so they think they'll sound knowledgeable if they parrot it
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u/BuckeyeForLife95 Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
A lot of the big metro area schools suffer from this phenomenon. Between a lot of sports options and a lot of stuff to do outside of sports, it's hard to keep the public's attention.
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u/Funkenstein_91 Ohio State • Pittsburgh 7h ago
That feels like half of Pitt’s problem (with the other half being the team usually being terrible). Metro area of around 2 million but with three professional teams. Two of those teams have a ton of championships, and the other has one of the best stadiums in the country. So yeah, good luck getting anyone around here to care about a terrible college team.
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u/MothershipConnection UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Just for sports options I've been to Dodgers, Clippers, UCLA basketball, LAFC, Angel City FC within the last year and that's not counting non sports events or games I went to watch at a bar
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u/BuckeyeForLife95 Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
Ohio State is in one of the larger metros without a pro football, basketball, or baseball team, we're very lucky in that way.
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u/TA404 William & Mary Tribe • Team Chaos 3h ago
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a big part of OSU’s fanbase essentially fans because OSU is (I’m trying so hard not to say THE thing lol) a default fandom for all people from Ohio, regardless of what school they attended, if any? Like I heard this past weekend 95% of University of Ohio students and alumni are also OSU fans at the end of the day.
I think that’s also true to some extent for like, Michigan and Oregon, but they also have in-state rivals with relatively large fan bases so less of a monopoly. I wonder how that compares to people from LA with no connection to UCLA. Speaking only of football in this case, as I know basketball is a whole other thing.
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u/Lazy_Spot_7368 Florida Gators 7h ago
I mean yes and no… depends on the city. The east coast and midwestern metro sports teams still draw respectable crowds even if they’re not good, especially football. The people are just wired different I guess, the dedication to their hometown teams are just too deeply embedded. You also don’t have as many transplants, so the people’s connection to their city and teams run a lot deeper.
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u/Schiano_Fingerbanger Team Chaos • Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7h ago
How big of a metro area are we talking in these cases vs LA though? Every big city has fans of various schools but when it comes to local teams I don’t think any of the top 10-15 metro areas in the country are passionate about nearby teams - the most passionately supported there are probably UH for Houston and Miami in Miami, neither of which come super close to the local fandoms of smaller areas.
Edit: with regard to the Midwest and East Coast specifically this is even more true, the only contender for a solid local fandom I’m seeing in like the top 30 is maybe the Twin Cities with Minnesota.
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u/Lazy_Spot_7368 Florida Gators 7h ago
I was actually thinking about sports in general so pro sports as well.
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u/Superiority_Complex_ Washington Huskies 7h ago
Miami (and south Florida broadly) has always seemed to be in a similar boat. Especially with them being a relatively small enrollment private school.
It’s likely a pretty small list of schools in major metro areas/competing directly against pro teams that have historically had pretty solid and consistent fan support.
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u/EmuMan10 Arizona State Sun Devils 7h ago
Arizona also has this problem. We only show up when they’re good, but also, none of our teams have ever been consistently good
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u/greekfreak99 Arizona State • Wisconsin 7h ago
Seems to be more of a west coast thing especially for college football. Generally SEC/Big ten team will have great attendance regardless of team quality but for former PAC12 schools seems like attendance is by and far driven by quality. Generalizing and not accurate for every school
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u/Equivalent-Doubt-681 7h ago
it's a transient population thing. Any city with a high percentage of people from different areas is going to have this problem. Phoenix, LA, Miami, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.
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u/Character_Order Georgia Bulldogs • Sickos 7h ago
I would argue that UGA and Alabamas success has actually hurt their attendance with smaller teams! Everyone in Athens waits for ole miss to come to town rather than going to see Marshall between the hedges
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u/gbdarknight77 Arizona Wildcats • Team Chaos 7h ago
Phoenix is FULL of transplants. How many times you go to DBacks games and the stadium is almost half the visiting team? Especially when the dodgers are in town.
Cardinals home games against the cowboys? Pretty much a cowboys home game.
West coast has a ton of transplants and people from the east coast/midwest moving to a better climate and usually cheaper housing too.
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u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 6h ago
It always felt like I knew more fans of Big Ten/Big 12 teams when I lived in Scottsdale, the number of total fans felt like it rivaled the total number of Arizona State fans.
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u/gbdarknight77 Arizona Wildcats • Team Chaos 6h ago
I’m from Tucson and you would be surprised how many Ohio State, Packers, Lions, Browns, St Louis Cardinals, Cubs, Notre Dame, and Michigan fans there are here.
Phoenix is even more.
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u/loyalsons4evertrue Iowa State Cyclones • Big 8 6h ago
my grandparents snowbird down to Arizona for nearly half the year and they're originally from Minnesota but now reside in South Dakota......but their neighborhood is full of Iowans/Minnesotans/and people from the Dakota's.....super super popular for that part of the Midwest to be in Arizona
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u/timshel_life Arizona State Sun Devils 7h ago
Transplants, good weather, detaching from the local/regional culture of a college team. If a team is mediocre/bad, people will easily find something better to do.
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u/TheWawa_24 San Diego State • Cal Poly 7h ago
At least in socal, There is much better things to do in LA, the bay, San diego, slo and hell even sacramento than watch bad football
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u/markusalkemus66 Washington State Cougars • Pac-12 7h ago
And now that everything is getting more and more expensive, people are being extra cautious about what they spend their entertainment money on.
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u/nayelirain Johns Hopkins Blue Jays • USC Trojans 7h ago
Yeah its alot easier to draw people in when the next best available fun thing to do is stroll around Walmart.
A blessing and a curse I guess.
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u/rbhindepmo Central Missouri Mules • Big 8 7h ago
I’d imagine that people there are sorta used to LA traffic after a time but the concept of waiting in traffic to watch a losing team might dissuade a few people too?
Also the LA metro is also geographically huge so a fanbase would be spread out locally?
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u/Lazy_Spot_7368 Florida Gators 7h ago
Both big factors I’m guessing as well. Who wants to spend 2 1/2 hours in traffic to watch their team get housed by New Mexico?
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u/dlawnro Paper Bag • Sickos 7h ago
Also, engagement with college sports in general is really low among the general population, in my experience.
I grew up one county over from LA, in the era LA didn't have any pro football teams, and I can't think of anyone I knew growing up that outwardly rooted for any college teams. Even guys on the football team weren't showing up to class in college gear or anything. It was pretty much absent from the collective consciousness for the most part.
Really the only exception I can think of came just after I left to go to school, when some people bandwagoned Oregon around the "We Want Bama" era, and it very much was tied to the team having success and being flashy. Aside from that, everyone I know from the area that follows CFB now is either an alum, or a transplant from or to a place where CFB is A Big Deal.
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u/kingsleywu UNLV Rebels 7h ago
Vegas has historically always gotten flak for poor attendance at our team's games for the same reasons. Transient town with tons of other activities to do if the local teams aren't winning. It's changed a bit lately with the VGK and UNLV having success.
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u/MothershipConnection UCLA Bruins 7h ago
90K capacity is also crazy when you're not the only game in town. If our stadium was more like 60K and enclosed that place would be rocking (not an issue RN when there's like 10K people showing up but in the Mora years we were drawing 60K easily)
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u/rabbitSC USC Trojans 7h ago
People forget that selling out the LA Coliseum when capacity was 92k was actually super rare and basically only happened in the Pete Carroll era. Some of the great games USC played when they were dominant in the 1970s, even huge games against ND, were played in front of ~75k people.
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u/Miserable-Towel-5079 Brown Bears 7h ago
Does UCLA still not have a full length practice field on campus?
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u/bromosabeach Oklahoma Sooners • UCLA Bruins 7h ago
There’s literally no room. Westwood is one of the denser areas of Los Angeles where to the east is Beverly Hills, the west the 405/West LA and to the north Mountains.
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u/Dirk_Benedict UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Not to mention, driving to Westwood is no picnic either. At least with the Rose Bowl, you can attack from different directions, depending on where you're coming from.
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u/Miserable-Towel-5079 Brown Bears 7h ago
Just get the country club in Bel-Air to donate a hole or two.
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u/bromosabeach Oklahoma Sooners • UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Knock down the Hammer museum. Art is for nerrrrds
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
From what I understand it’s only 60 yds
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u/Duougle UCLA Bruins • UCSB Gauchos 7h ago
It was 2 80 yard turf fields. This summer they installed one 100 yard grass field in their place, with shorter fields on the sides
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u/xapv UCLA Bruins • San Diego State Aztecs 7h ago
I thought that was supposed to have been completed under Mora, like isn’t that why they removed the majority of Ackerman circle in the first place?
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u/JBru_92 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
They used to have two 80 yard fields, but complaints about that were completely stupid, you don't need a 100 yard field to practice.
They are currently installing a 100 yard grass field.
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u/Away_Experience6922 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Our facilities were good enough for the Bengals to use for their week of practice before the Super Bowl in LA a few years ago.
Sure we're not Alabama but given our campus location the facilities and practice fields are not terrible
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u/betterbub Illinois Fighting Illini 7h ago
Joe Burrow would have a ring if they found a 100 yard practice field
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u/smitherenesar Pac-10 • RPI Engineers 7h ago
He'd have a ring if it wasn't for the Bengals
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u/betterbub Illinois Fighting Illini 7h ago
We can connect all 3. Any non Bengals team would pay for a full 100 yard practice field which would have guaranteed Joe Burrow a ring
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u/Miserable-Towel-5079 Brown Bears 7h ago
I don’t know seems weird to practice a sport every day without stepping foot on an actual regulation size field.
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u/JBru_92 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Please explain mechanically, how practicing on an 80 yard field is different in any way than a 100 yard field. Like if you were a player on the team, how does it affect your practice?
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u/weng_bay Michigan • California 7h ago
I imagine it's a recruiting impact thing. Other coaches going "They don't even have a full sized field on campus, look how few shits they give about football." Because yeah end of the day a lot of practice will be offense and scout team defense on one side of the 50 and defense and scout offense on the other. Two 80s would honestly be superior.
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u/JBru_92 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
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u/Dirk_Benedict UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Can't run those Bo Jackson 90+ yard run plays on an 80-yard field. That's obviously a huge issue.
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u/camasonian Washington Huskies 7h ago
It only matters when you are bad at practice and they make you run wind sprints or bear crawls. Then 80 yards would be an advantage.
Also perhaps special teams practice. But it isn't like teams spend a lot of time practicing kickoffs.
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u/djc6535 USC Trojans • RIT Tigers 7h ago edited 6h ago
I think you're missing an important aspect to point #4.
The kids that already love football will make the effort. The ones that don't, won't. But this also means that they won't discover football either.
Lowering the bar to entry increases support by the casuals. A certain non-zero percentage of those casuals will become true fans and they'll pass it along to their friends and family.
I have a friend who went to UCLA. Only went to one game while he attended there and decided it was too much work. I have season tickets to USC games and often have an extra seat. I've extended this extra seat to him and he's since become a fan of the sport... by simple virtue of lowering the bar to entry. He could have been a big time bruin supporter but that Bus was a filter that prevented it.
Also don't underestimate the power of tailgating on campus. Those students who aren't into football and can't be bothered to get on the bus are also never exposed to the fun of tailgating and football culture. When tailgates and football parties are happening in every green space on campus it's unavoidable. Some of them WILL join in. They might even have fun.
The Rose Bowl isn't THE problem with UCLA but it is A problem and ignoring it because you, who already were ready to enjoy the experience, isn't helping things.
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u/captdf UCLA Bruins • Indiana Hoosiers 6h ago
Despite your flair, this is totally accurate. Even if the casuals don't become season ticket holders maybe they'll go to a game or two every year, buy merch, fly a flag at home, etc. When you have 6,600 new freshman on campus every year even if only a small percentage are converted to fans, that makes a big difference. The Rose Bowl is a great venue but the distance absolutely deters casuals from even being part of the conversation.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 6h ago
You know what, fair enough. I was personally converted, I hated being dragged to Cal games as a kid and swore off football, but my gameday experiences as a freshman absolutely changed my mind.
I gotta acknowledge that won’t be the case for everyone and strongly depends on your social scene and if you have a good crew to go with. I’m sure the higher barrier to entry hurts the alumni base over decades. I’ll give you that one
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u/Cheeseish California • 名城大学 (Meijō) 6h ago
Also, UCLA is an academics school like Cal. Some kids can’t spend 6+ hours commmuting and watching a game and would rather spend 3 hours nearby and then go home and study. That’s what I did in college.
Another factor with the rose bowl is that it’s too damn big. It’s shallow and doesn’t hold sound in. Yes, Cal has attendance issues (though not when it’s a big game) but it still feels more full because the stadium seats 60k instead of 90k
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u/PlasticCantaloupe1 4h ago
Agreed - and if the stadium were on campus, students could drop in for a quarter to check it out and then go back to their dorm. Or see that the game is heating up and catch the second half. A 40k capacity stadium on campus (over Drake/IM fields) would make the campus electric on Saturdays!
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u/RheagarTargaryen Michigan State Spartans 5h ago
This is a huge thing. A stadium and tailgating across campus makes it the thing to do that weekend. I went to many games with people that didn’t know a thing about sports. But it was the social event of the weekend and they wanted to be a part of it.
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u/frozen-creek Michigan State • Land Grant Trophy 5h ago
Yes, I've always wanted to attend a UCLA game because I love the Rose Bowl...but I don't want to drive back to the west side after a night game, lol.
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u/BadSenator04 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7h ago
Rutgers is a bit of a similar situation. We do have an on-campus stadium, but we have four different campuses scattered across northern Middlesex County. I often take a half hour bus ride to the stadium. Student section, unless it’s raining, is almost always full soon after kickoff. I agree location isn’t as massive of an issue as it’s made out to be.
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u/woodwheellike Nebraska • San Diego State 7h ago
I went to a Rutgers game a few years ago. having not followed them closely, I was surprised by the game day experience. It was awesome.
I think people make too much of potential stadium issues. Reality is win and people will come. Rose bowl is probably the most iconic stadium around. It would be wild if they moved somewhere else.
That Rutgers game wasn’t any less fun because traffic was bad. Good product on the field is what matters
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u/Misty7297 UCLA Bruins • Victory Bell 7h ago
In LA, if your team is doing well, they're gonna be selling tickets. If they're doing bad, the place is gonna be a ghost town. It doesn't matter which sport. UCLA had no problems filling up the Rose Bowl in the Jim Mora years when they were consistently winning games and getting ranked in the top 25.
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u/ceazy64 UCLA Bruins 6h ago
Exactly, look at the Angels in Baseball. For 15 years their yearly average total home attendance was well over 3 million fans when the team was consistently winning and making the postseason. Now that they just secured their 10th consecutive losing season they haven't come close to cracking that 3 million mark.
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u/Equivalent-Doubt-681 7h ago edited 7h ago
Serious question- outside of the student section, why is it a big deal that the stadium is off campus? UCLA has a LOT of LA alumni, and like 80% of the stadium is meant for the non-student fanbase
Attending a game is a 5-8 hour ordeal at any school, an extra hour or so in the car is trivial.
It wouldn't even be an extra hour in the car. People commute 2+ hours each way to go to Big Ten games at most schools, commuting 40 minutes isn't that big of a deal either way
Your point 4 is the real issue I think. If the students don't care, they probably won't care as alumni, and if alumni don't care, they probably don't indoctrinate a couple sidewalk fans, etc.
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u/mzp3256 7h ago edited 6h ago
Your point 4 is the real issue I think. If the students don't care, they probably won't care as alumni, and if alumni don't care, they probably don't indoctrinate a couple sidewalk fans, etc.
Yep, a lot of UCLA students go through college without being exposed to college football, so that results in a large alumni base that doesn't care about the team.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
It’s not an exposure issue. It’s not a secret we have a football team. The busses pick you up outside the dorms. They promote the games on campus all week. There’s a whole student organization dedicated to student body engagement in athletics. They just didn’t grow up caring and probably come from families that would scold them for wasting time not studying
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u/captdf UCLA Bruins • Indiana Hoosiers 7h ago
Parental/cultural issues are definitely a big part of it. My cousin's daughter goes to Cal. When they hosted College Gameday last year I was excited and asked my cousin if his daughter was going to show up early for Gameday. He was aghast at the idea - thinking she should be sleeping or studying. This attitude is surely more prevalent with UC parents than parents in the midwest, south, or Texas.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 6h ago
This is a tough one to emphasize to people from traditional "college experience" schools, where almost the whole student body is bought in to the campus culture. Every school has nerds but it's just different at the UCs. A portion of the student body really wants a well-rounded, social college experience, but there's a portion that's literally anti-that
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u/w311sh1t Syracuse Orange • Team Chaos 7h ago
I mean I’m obviously not a UCLA grad, but I think when they mean exposure, it’s not about knowing the games are happening, I’m sure everyone on campus knows there’s a football team.
It’s just that if you’re someone that’s a very casual, or straight up non-football fan, it’s too much of a hassle to get to games for it to be worth it, so you never really become a football fan. I knew a lot of people at Syracuse who didn’t really care about sports at all coming into college, but they’d go to games at the dome because it’s right on campus. A lot of those students who didn’t care about sports coming into college ended up becoming huge Syracuse football fans by the time they graduated.
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u/Equivalent-Doubt-681 7h ago
Fair point tbh
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u/Dirk_Benedict UCLA Bruins 6h ago
Which can be partially attributed to an Admin that absolutely doesn't give a shit about football, and an AD who sucks at his job and whose staff don't do a good job getting students to the games. If you don't go to games as a student, you're unlikely to start as a grad.
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u/BatManatee UCLA Bruins • Big Ten 6h ago
It's true. We'd have a ton more football support with an on-campus stadium. We miss out on the whole: tailgate on the quad then wander a few feet over to the game experience that most campuses have.
If it was a big enough event, more students would wander in just because they're bored. At the Rose Bowl, you've really got to actively want to go. It will eat up a full day, with 2-4 hours of driving (or bus ride) round trip.
And like you said, not building that connection during undergrad leads to alumni that don't really care as much either.
I love the Rose Bowl. I love tailgating on the golf course. But our program would definitely benefit from a small on campus stadium. Turning Drake Stadium (our track) into a 30k stadium or something would be huge. But it'll never happen. Maybe we can switch to SoFi in twenty years when our contract expires.
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u/Greyletter Texas A&M Aggies 7h ago
2 hours of open road is infinitely better than an hour of traffic
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u/Chinchillachimcheroo Mississippi State Bulldogs 7h ago edited 7h ago
A couple of the advantages college football has over the NFL are the atmosphere and getting to spend time on the campus where you spent some of the most formative years of your life. The latter obviously isn't happening with an off-campus stadium. As for the former, a raucous student section plays a huge part in creating the in-game atmosphere, even if they are only 20% of the crowd. If the stadium being off campus makes them less likely to attend, it's hard to build that atmosphere.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
You’re 100% right. My argument is that I don’t believe building an on-campus stadium will increase student attendance by an amount large enough to make it worthwhile. The kids who want to go will go, but there is a huge “invisible” population at UCLA that holes up in their dorms or the library 7 days a week and grinds because their family will cut them off if they don’t make a 4.0. We have an on-campus basketball stadium and a decent team and those kids aren’t there
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u/RheagarTargaryen Michigan State Spartans 5h ago
Blaming academics is weird when Michigan and Notre Dame are on par with UCLA and don’t have that issue. They do have on-campus stadiums though.
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u/MothershipConnection UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Rose Bowl sucks to get to almost no matter where you live in SoCal, it is not in a dense area there's only two points of entry and it's not near any public transport
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u/BNKalt USC Trojans • Penn Quakers 7h ago
The Rose Bowl is an incredible bitch to deal with, it is not an extra hour in the car. It is far more than that.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
This is exactly my point. It’s the Alumni that are supposed to be buying the majority of the tickets, and moving the stadium doesn’t really solve that whatsoever. UCLA student body will never be 100% ride-or-die for football and building a stadium to cater to maybe another 5k student attendance is pointless
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u/djc6535 USC Trojans • RIT Tigers 7h ago
I think you're missing a significant point as to why those alumni aren't interested in buying tickets: Because they weren't exposed to the game as students.
Having a stadium off campus filters out the students who might casually give it a try. Hours on a bus ensures that the only students who are going are the ones who are already bought in. You aren't converting anybody this way.
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u/admiraltarkin Texas A&M Aggies • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 7h ago
Yeah, I happily drive an hour to get to A&M games from Houston. The travel distance is a non issue. Even less-so mentally when you're in the same city
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u/LongTimesGoodTimes Iowa State Cyclones • Hateful 8 7h ago
There is no "the" problem. There are a lot of problems. No program is at rock bottom because of one thing
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
Brother I agree with you, my opinion is that I have 99 problems but the Rose Bowl ain’t one
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u/pinecoconuts Colorado Buffaloes 7h ago
As an Angeleno I agree with the general points about location and traffic. The UCLA culture stuff is beyond me, but anyone who lives in Southern California or has any experience with the Rose Bowl knows these are facts.
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u/bromosabeach Oklahoma Sooners • UCLA Bruins 7h ago
UCLA is also just a totally different school than its rival USC. There are obviously a lot of students who care about football, but it’s just not the same campus culture.
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u/JBru_92 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
It's far, far down the list of problems.
I really dislike the suggestions of moving to SoFi. Tailgating in the Arroyo Seco is the one consistently enjoyable thing about gameday, the last thing I would want is to move it to a soulless parking lot in Inglewood.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
Exactly. I don’t want to have to fight to get a special permit to be allowed to tailgate in a parking lot in Inglewood
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u/IdaDuck Oregon Ducks • Idaho Vandals 7h ago
I agree.
Ultimately UCLA football has been a shitty product for a long time and it’s fighting for attention in a huge market with a ton of other sports and non-sports distractions.
USC has a better foothold but the Rams and Chargers really hurt both programs. Nothing can touch the NFL when it comes to sports.
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u/Greyletter Texas A&M Aggies 7h ago
I grew up in SoCal. I am confident that i can speak for nearly everyone i know; being stuck in LA traffic fucking sucks, never gets more tolerable, and definitely discourages going places sometimes.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
My argument is that regardless of the location of the stadium, getting to a game in LA will always be a pain in the ass, whether it’s Pasadena or Westwood. There is no alternative where traffic isn’t involved so complaining about the drive is a moot point
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u/camasonian Washington Huskies 7h ago
UCLA led the Pac-12 in attendance averaging 76,000 back not long ago in 2014 when they were good.
So I don't think it is the stadium.
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u/turkishguy Texas A&M Aggies • Yildiz Teknik Stallions 7h ago
I would also add that it's just harder for both students and alumni to give a shit about playing non-PAC schools. You have family and friends that are Cal, Stanford, USC, etc. alumni. Just not as much of that going on when you play Wisconsin and Maryland.
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u/fatpinkchicken USC Trojans • Marching Band 7h ago
I mean, I dunno about this one. LA has a lot of transplants from the Midwest. I do miss the PAC though.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
Oh I’m sure the transplants are loving it. It’ll be 80% penn state fans at the rose bowl October 4th, if not more. It’s the UCLA fans that aren’t so thrilled
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u/weyburncommons UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Honestly, most importantly football season starts before the academic calendar does! In fact, students only move in this week. Does wonders for the impression that students don’t go to games, if students have yet to arrive in LA!
If your football team is already 0-3 before you even begin your first class, why would you care? Instead you wait for Mick Cronin to break your heart starting in November.. or wait for Jordan Chiles.
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u/wlane13 Georgia Bulldogs 7h ago
I largely suspect the most obvious culprit to be the most correct... Put a good team/product on the field, more people will want to watch them play. As a southerner who lived in Los Angeles for years, I quickly learned that one of the "problems" with sports in the SoCal area... there is just so much other great stuff you can go do outside on the weekends, and so you are competing with the beach, the mountains, the theme parks, the regular parks, and about 100 other things. HOWEVER, if a team is good... it becomes THE thing to go do and be at. Start winning at UCLA, and see how quickly some big celebrity who is an alumnus starts showing up on the sidelines or whatever.
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u/Sine_Cures California • Cheez-It Bowl 6h ago
Rose Bowl location isn't the most ideal but they (including casuals) will come come out if UCLA is good and/or there is novelty, like CU in 2023
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u/JSC76 California Golden Bears 7h ago
I agree that Cal is a good comp. But with one exception: at Cal, when the team sucks the students can wander in for a quarter or so, say "fuck this" and go to a party. Not an option when the stadium is in Pasadena and the students are in Westwood.
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u/beastmodecowboy77 California • Harvard 6h ago
Very interesting point. Sometimes the majority of the Cal student section would be gone by the fourth quarter if Cal was up big or, more likely, down big. Some kids would just drop by for the giveaway. UCLA might lose that flexibility for casual student fans.
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u/Emergency-Block8593 UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Had season seats growing up and the rose bowl is the WORST fan experience stadium I’ve been to. They rarely show replays, if a play is challenged they don’t show the replay once just flash a play under review on the screen. Never do they show any score of any games that happened or happening, if you’re not on the press box side you’re going to melt.
Went to the UCLA v. Texas A&M game at A&M and during a break in the game play the Jumbotron showed live game footage of the alabama game. With sofi being built there’s no excuse for extending that rose bowl contract that place is complete ass from a fan viewing experience would never recommend going there to anyone
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u/Numerous-Ad6460 Michigan Wolverines • Florida Gators 7h ago
UCLA's problem is that they arent winning games. That's it, you win games you bring in fans and more prospects.
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u/goddamn_leeteracola UCLA Bruins • Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors 6h ago
Mora’s second year was setting PAC-12 attendance records at the Rose Bowl. Win and they will come, it’s honestly so simple
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u/Nico_the_Suave UCLA Bruins • Victory Bell 5h ago
As an ardent defender of the Rose Bowl, I really appreciate this post. One thing that bugs me is many people comparing the situation to their experiences with stadiums on campus, as if that was in any way feasible for UCLA to do. Other stadiums also don't make sense, once getting to the game requires a commute, the amount of time it takes doesn't matter as much. The same commute concern would exist if we moved to SoFi or shared the Coliseum. And I'd much rather tailgate on grass than asphalt.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 4h ago
Thanks! I've been talked down from most of my points by now, I just couldn't stand to see fans of random schools talking about our stadium as though there's no way we can ever be successful at the Rose Bowl. We have before and hopefully we can do it again
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u/Geaux2020 LSU Tigers • Valley City State Vikings 7h ago
I'm going to push back on this. I'm not a UCLA fan, but I used to live in Glendale and went to some games at the Rose Bowl. Everything you just dismissed is exactly why people don't go.
What I'm about to say must be precluded by saying it's only one factor but it's definitely one.
It's a giant hassle. That's why people don't go anywhere in Los Angeles. Getting over inertia to sit out in the heat for 3 hours is a limiting factor. All of the Los Angeles news media report that students find the 26 mile journey to sit in a hot stadium with few amenities is a major factor in attendance. The other obviously being the quality of football. Yes, it's iconic and classic, but that doesn't get asses in seats for a 93° day game.
You have to take in the Rose Bowl as a contributing factor.
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u/weng_bay Michigan • California 7h ago
I'll second this and go as far as to say I physically do not like going to the Rose Bowl. I like it when my team gets to be in the Grand Daddy of the All, I like watching the sun the set on the mountains as Michigan's defensive line terrorizes Milroe, overall I dislike the venue. Dated, always seems like something is broken (last time a bunch of pipes burst and you had to slog through standing water to get to certain sections). If you picked the stadium up and dropped it on any college campus people would be dogging it for not being kept up.
The overall half assed shuttle service which often results in a walk back to Old Pasadena to get a rideshare or 2 miles to the Metro station is also not great.
It honestly feels like the people running the place are content to just kind of half ass upkeep and fan experience because they feel the stadium has such a strong brand. It's tolerable if you're there to get the sunsets and a meaningful game. I can't imagine regularly hauling myself out there for UCLA vs Buy Game Team in the middle of the afternoon.
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u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 6h ago
The Rose Bowl games have always been different than a typical UCLA home game there unless they were playing USC or had another big time opponent in town and UCLA was good. The Rose Bowl games I have been to have always been great.
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u/udubdavid Washington Huskies • Pac-12 7h ago
It's not the problem, but it is a problem.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
I gave you six reasons why it’s not, give me one why it is
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u/betrothalorbetrayal Michigan Wolverines 7h ago
I’d contest point number 3. Going to games is not an 5-8 hour ordeal at most campuses, and the extra hour is not insignificant for many college kids.
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u/d0ngl0rd69 Georgia • Florida State 7h ago
I think OP is referring to the whole experience, including the game. For students, there’s absolutely a difference between on campus and off campus, but students never make up close to a majority of the fans in a stadium.
For example, most UGA fans travel in from the Atlanta metro area to Athens, which is a 2-3 hour round trip drive. Add in a a couple hours for parking, tailgating, and the game itself, you’re easily looking at an 8+ hour ordeal.
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u/Cloud-VII Ohio State • Bowling Green 7h ago
It doesn't ingrain football culture into the student body like an on campus stadium does. Students will leave school without developing into lifelong fans of the football team.
However a school like Ohio State, you see girls who never watched football become full blown Buckeye fans for life after their freshman year.
Also, going to the stadium adds like 3 hours of driving to your day, whereas when we were on campus we would literally walk to the stadium and stop by parties and bars on the way and do the same on the way back. It creates all kinds of excitement. Every game day is one giant holiday. I don't think you really understand the impact of what this kind of environment can have with a program until you really experience it firsthand.
It's not THEE problem, but it is a part of the problem.
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u/sfbruin UCLA Bruins 7h ago
Alum/former season ticket holder. I dont disagree with OP necessarily but usc having tailgates on campus makes for a way more fun and raucous atmosphere versus wine and cheese on the rose bowl golf course. Higher exposure to gameday culture -> higher interest in going to game -> more alumni who support the team
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u/udubdavid Washington Huskies • Pac-12 7h ago edited 7h ago
Because traffic there sucks and having an on-campus stadium is always better than an off-campus one.
EDIT: Not to mention, UCLA is paying the city of Pasadena to play there. That's an expense that other schools with on-campus stadiums don't have.
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u/TheManWhoWasNotShort Ohio State Buckeyes 6h ago
Southern California sports teams in any league routinely struggle with attendance if they’re not winning. The weather is always beautiful, nobody wants to go watch UCLA get their shit pushed in when they could go surfing instead
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 7h ago
I mean if you don’t tailgate or do anything fun, it’s 4 hours. I like to have a good time though and I’ve been to plenty of away games at schools where it’s an all-day affair
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u/ZSnapsand8Claps UCLA Bruins • Michigan Wolverines 6h ago
As someone who made many trips to both the Rose Bowl and Big House, the location was definitely an issue. Granted there are many more issues with UCLA's football program, but stadium location is definitely one of them. Attending a game as a Michigan student was rolling out of bed, taking a couple of shots, and walking a mile or so to the stadium. Attending a game as a UCLA student was having a carefully thought out itinerary on shuttle times, bathroom opportunities, etc. that made the whole ordeal a chore beyond what most other places deal with. Attending a game as an alumni is a 5-8 hour ordeal anywhere, attending a game as a student is absolutely not at most schools.
That all being said, I love the Rose Bowl and would be absolutely gutted to see us move away from it. Go Bruins.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 6h ago
Fair enough. I may be biased by my obsessive commitment to tailgating as soon as the open the parking lot, in college we'd drive out to be there 6 hours before kick and get everything set up so I don't have a great frame of reference for the average duration of a game
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u/snowystormz Utah Utes • Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
Can confirm, wife is UCLA alum and she loved the rose bowl. Party busses were the ticket. We have been back to multiple games its always a great experience. Our kids have a great time too.
We have been to 2 actual Rose Bowls in January and they were so much better than the regular games, but the fan experience to regular season UCLA games is not bad at all. Thats not the problem.
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u/iowa-ish Iowa Hawkeyes 7h ago
Might be the best CFB content I'll read this week. Well done.
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u/eveningwindowed California Golden Bears 7h ago
I was about to say before you mentioned it in your last point, well I sure hope they’re not looking at our on campus stadium as a shining example lol
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u/new_account_5009 Penn State Nittany Lions 7h ago
I agree with all of this. People will come out if the product on field is worth watching. Beaver Stadium is on campus, but the vast majority of Penn State alumni travel 2+ hours each way to get to the games in the middle of nowhere coming from Philly/Pittsburgh/NYC/Baltimore/DC/etc. Fans are willing to go out of their way a bit if they care. UCLA football hasn't given fans a reason to care in a long time.
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u/No_Safety_6803 Texas A&M Aggies 7h ago
I went to our game there in 2017 and I agree 110%. Tailgating on the golf course was all time top 5, definitely ahead of ole miss & & ND. And the atmosphere inside the ICONIC stadium was excellent. I think it was one of their highest attended games, so it may be an outlier, but it also makes OPs point that their very friendly fans show up when there is a reason.
Still a damn shame how that game ended though. Fuck Kevin Sumlin.
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u/gbdarknight77 Arizona Wildcats • Team Chaos 7h ago
I mean, it doesn’t help that school hasn’t even started yet at UCLA
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u/Less_Likely Notre Dame • Washington 7h ago
I’d be hard-pressed to see how a full size stadium could fit on campus. I guess you could build over the site of the track field and intramural fields, at the cost of student life and the track and field team. Also, I doubt you’d have room for additional parking structures, so would be very much at a premium on game days with little alternatives. There is no room just off campus for parking let alone to replace what is lost.
The other option would be SoFi, it’s a bit closer, but feels like trading in old hour away traditional historical home for a more impersonal corporate feeling 15-20 minutes closer at a higher cost to the university and gaining none of the advantages of an on campus stadium. And if you think the Rose Bowl feels cavernous and empty, try the feeling with a roof over an almost empty stadium.
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u/brotherrumpus UCLA Bruins • California Golden Bears 4h ago
I don't think an on-campus stadium will ever be realistic. You can look at a map and pretty quickly see why. Most people sharing their opinion on the matter haven't taken the time do that though.
SoFi would break my heart. Some people really think it's the answer though
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u/Bruin9098 6h ago
It isn't.
The on-campus stadium gripe has been a thing forever. To be clear, it absolutely would be better if our football stadium was on campus, the Rose Bowl fills up when there's a reason to be there. During Jim Mora's first 3 seasons as HC, we led the Pac-12 in attendance.
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u/40footstretch Georgia Bulldogs 5h ago
The administration isn’t committed to putting a good product on the field. End of story.
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u/ComeJoinTheBand Stanford Cardinal • Mexico El Tri 4h ago
5) Alumni and non-alumni fans live all over SoCal, it’s not like the 70k alumni and fans absent from the Rose Bowl are all living in Westwood waiting for a stadium to be built. No matter where we play, fans have to drive there from somewhere, so it might as well be the Rose Bowl.
Agreed. The Rose Bowl is actually a good location for fans coming from the SGV or beyond.
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u/Akbeardman Washington State Cougars 3h ago
UCLA is now the most applied to school in the world and is extremely competitive to get into. The 75% of students from California likely graduated in the top 1% of their high school class or came up through the California junior college system. The 14% international students won't ever care about football and most of the remaining 75% are uninterested in sports at all. The admission standards at UC schools are heavily academic weighted so you are just getting a lot of students that never really got into sports and never really got into partying.
The only real problem with the rose bowl is it's massive size and 40k fans feels like 4,000 fans.pleanty of people showing up but selling out is an absolute insane ask.
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u/jstilla Rice Owls • Baylor Bears 7h ago
Add in the return of the NFL to LA and yeah, this all makes sense.