Copyright Los Angeles Times
Should UCLA make SoFi Stadium its football home, as university officials stunningly acknowledged they were considering last week, a relatively quick logo conversion on the artificial turf could be completed for Bruins games with power wash and paint. One might as well take that same power wash to the school’s football identity. Holy Terry Donahue, what are we doing here? After switching conferences in a money grab, UCLA needs to sell its football soul too? There is no better setting in college football than Saturday afternoons at the Rose Bowl. Just the sight of the iconic neon sign bearing the stadium’s name is enough to get the goosebumps going. Tailgating on Brookside Golf Course and the surrounding parking lots is a tradition unto itself. Then there’s the heavenly sunset view of the San Gabriel Mountains and a field manicured so perfectly that it’s as if the football gods tended it themselves. It would be blasphemy to blame UCLA’s problems on its football home. Yes, the Bruins are losing untold millions of dollars per season in opportunity costs because of a bad stadium lease they signed a long time ago that provides no share of suite sales or stadium sponsorship sales and only a sliver of parking, concessions and merchandise revenues. Yes, worsening attendance over the last decade has cost many additional millions. Yes, it’s a long drive from campus, it’s maddeningly hot in August and September, blah, blah, blah. Most of these things are not Rose Bowl problems, they’re UCLA ineptitude problems. After failing to build an on-campus stadium like almost every other school in the country, university officials agreed to a bad Rose Bowl deal and hired a mostly uninspiring collection of coaches since Donahue’s 1995 retirement, leading to teams few clamored to see. Now the school is shortsightedly looking to pivot away from one of its greatest assets. The alternative, which the Bruins are considering despite a Rose Bowl lease that doesn’t expire until the summer of 2044, is much worse. SoFi is a shiny, sterile ode to stadium excess. It’s impressive in its overindulgence but has about as much character and history as a new megaplex movie theater. The place screams NFL, not college football. There’s really no comparison when one considers what UCLA would be giving up by abandoning the Rose Bowl for SoFi Stadium. Tailgating: Barring a change in policy, fans would trade in unfettered fun for massive restrictions in one designated parking lot. Enjoy throwing a football in a 6x9-foot space behind your vehicle. Concessions: You really think they’re going to be cheaper at an NFL stadium? Commuting: The distance from campus to SoFi Stadium is roughly half that of the trek to the Rose Bowl, but it’s still a slog on a freeway. Plus, events at the nearby Forum and Intuit Dome could further snarl traffic. Locker room: The Bruins would give up a dedicated home locker room that’s named for late chancellor Charles Young to probably occupy a converted visitor’s locker room. Fan facilities: Score one for SoFi. The scoreboard, restrooms and seats would be huge upgrades. Severing of Donahue ties: The statue of the late coach and pavilion named after him presumably wouldn’t be moving to Inglewood. Status check: Basically, it’s back to the same pecking-order mess old-timers remember at the Coliseum, where the Bruins once shared the stadium with the Trojans and Rams. Temperature check: While it’s usually cooler in Inglewood than it is in Pasadena, SoFi Stadium still can be uncomfortably hot. Scheduling snafus: Would there be enough time to convert the field and handle other logistics if a UCLA game on a six-day selection to accommodate television executives ended up with an 8 p.m. Saturday kickoff, with the Rams scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday? Field conditions: UCLA just spent nearly $3 million to install a grass practice field. Now it wants to play on artificial turf? Whoever decides the fate of UCLA’s football home should remember this: Whatever might be gained in dollars by moving to SoFi Stadium would be more than lost in identity. History lesson For more than three decades, UCLA was a co-tenant with the Rams and USC at the Coliseum. The three teams enjoyed a cordial coexistence, according to those familiar with Coliseum operations, even though by mid-November each year, the field would have many spots that were equally dirt and grass thanks to the wear and tear of so much usage. When the Rams moved to Anaheim for the 1980 season, the Coliseum Commission started discussions with the Raiders to relocate from Oakland. Nobody knows the details of what happened next better than John Sandbrook, who at the time was a UCLA assistant chancellor under the legendary Young. According to Sandbrook, the Coliseum Commission proposed to enter into a lease with the Raiders that, in the opinion of both UCLA and USC, would make the Raiders the stadium’s top tenant while relegating the Bruins and Trojans to second-tier status. At a meeting of the Coliseum Commission in July 1982, Young was denied permission to speak against the proposed lease agreement even though the president of the Commission, Mike Frankovich, was a former UCLA football star who had gone on to become a successful Hollywood entertainment executive. Sandbrook said that Young became so enraged that he sent Sandbrook outside to a pay phone to call UCLA vice chancellor Elwin Svenson and instruct him to start discussions with the City of Pasadena about moving to the Rose Bowl. Young had been under intense pressure to relocate the football team to the Rose Bowl for years because of unhappiness among alumni leaders about poor attendance at the Coliseum related to limited parking, a lack of tailgating areas and the general perception that the stadium was more associated with USC than UCLA because of its proximity to the Trojans’ campus. UCLA eventually agreed to a deal in which it would pay 8% of ticket receipts as rent to the City of Pasadena to use the Rose Bowl — as opposed to 10% at the Coliseum — while receiving free parking and closure of the Brookside Golf Course for use as additional parking and tailgating. At the 2022 ceremony in which UCLA’s home locker room at the stadium was named in his honor, Young told those in attendance — including athletic director Martin Jarmond — that the move to the Rose Bowl was among the smartest and best decisions he made in his 29 years as chancellor. Young, who retired as chancellor in 1997, died in October 2023, 10 weeks before he would have turned 92. Hoops heaven Those banners collecting dust amid the rafters inside Pauley Pavilion could get some new company. Both the UCLA men’s and women’s basketball teams are serious national title contenders heading into their season openers Monday. The addition of dazzling point guard Donovan Dent to a strong core of returners could make the 12th-ranked men the most fun they’ve been to watch since Lonzo Ball packed Pauley Pavilion nearly a decade ago. The third-ranked women’s team is so stacked that it could have four All-Big Ten players in Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Gianna Kneepkens. There shouldn’t be much drama Monday evening when the men face Eastern Washington at Pauley Pavilion and the women play San Diego State at Honda Center. But showdowns aren’t far away. The men face No. 13 Arizona on Nov. 14 at Intuit Dome and the women play No. 6 Oklahoma on Nov. 10 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Olympic sport spotlight: Women’s soccer Needing a big goal while trailing in the second half Saturday, UCLA got two. Forward Bella Winn scored in the 62nd minute to tie the score and forward Jordan Geis added the go-ahead goal in the 77th minute to power the third-seeded Bruins women’s soccer team to a 2-1 victory over sixth-seeded Penn State in a Big Ten conference quarterfinal in West Lafayette, Ind. The Bruins (11-4-3) will play second-seeded Michigan State or seventh-seeded Northwestern in a semifinal Thursday at Energizer Park in St. Louis. The game starts at 4 p.m. PST and will be televised by the Big Ten Network. Opinion time What should UCLA do about its football home? Stay at the Rose Bowl Move to SoFi Stadium Click here to vote in our survey. Poll results We asked “Does quarterback Nico Iamaleava need another college season before heading to the NFL?” After 564 votes, the results: Yes, he has more to prove: 96.5% No, he’s ready to move on: 3.5% In case you missed it How UCLA’s Mick Cronin lured Donovan Dent in pursuit of a banner season Rose Bowl files lawsuit accusing UCLA of trying to move football games to SoFi Stadium Former UCLA football players urge chancellor to remove athletic director Martin Jarmond What can Jamar Brown do for UCLA? Plenty, based on his performance in exhibition finale ‘You didn’t see the strain.’ UCLA’s Tim Skipper saw major slippage against Indiana Have something Bruin?
