Rose Bowl Pasadena Tickets

Rose Bowl tickets and the stadium's origins

The Rose Bowl stands on Arroyo land the City of Pasadena bought in 1897. Building was approved in 1921, and the first football game was played on October 28, 1922, between California and USC. Official dedication followed on January 1, 1923.

Architect Myron Hunt prepared the original design with Tournament President William Leishman. Hunt first envisaged a neoclassical façade of continuous arches, but cost limits forced a rethink. Instead he built foundation and retaining walls from stone gathered in the Arroyo, and the first bleachers reused lumber from the Tournament Park stands.

From horseshoe to enclosed bowl

At opening, the south end was open, giving the stadium a horseshoe plan with a running track. Hunt placed half the structure's mass below grade and planted its earth-banked sides with rose bushes to soften its impact on the park. Closing the south end in 1928 created the elliptical shape that improved sight lines, and four new tunnels and field lighting arrived in the same era.

In 1930 cast-in-place concrete replaced the wooden bleachers, extra rows were added at the back of the bowl and the first permanent press box was built on the west sideline. Today the Rose Bowl is a National Historic Landmark and a California Historic Civil Engineering landmark.

Rose Bowl seating plan and premium areas

Hunt's original aim was to seat as many people as possible close to the action, and the later enclosed bowl now surrounds the field. The stadium groups its premium seating into Club Seats, Loge Boxes and Suites. Suites have extra-wide, cushioned exterior seats, and the stadium promotes their sight lines and views of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Football, soccer and event heritage

The stadium is best known for the New Year's Tournament of Roses Football Game and is home to UCLA Bruin Football. It staged cycling during the 1932 Olympics, Olympic soccer in 1984 and matches at the 1994 Men's World Cup and 1999 Women's World Cup.

Five Super Bowls have been played here, including Super Bowl XIV in 1980, when Pittsburgh became the first team to win four, and Super Bowl XXI in 1987, the New York Giants' first NFL title since 1956. BCS national championship games followed in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, then the inaugural College Football Playoff semi-final in 2015. In 2021 the Rose Bowl Game moved to AT&T Stadium because of rising COVID-19 cases in Southern California, its first relocation since 1942 during World War II.

Beyond football, the stadium hosts concerts, the Americafest Fourth of July celebration, religious services, filmings and the World's Largest Flea Market.

Getting to the Rose Bowl

The stadium is at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena, a northeast suburb of Los Angeles, within the Pasadena Arroyo Parks & Recreation District. The 36-hole Brookside Golf Course lies just north. Its Number One Course, opened in 1928, has served as temporary parking and space for Rose Bowl-related social events.