The Rose Bowl Game > The Stadium > Stadium Overview
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Rose Bowl Stadium Overview

William L. Leishman, Tournament president in 1920, envisioned a stadium fashioned after the Yale Bowl in his hometown. In 1922, the Tournament of Roses Association, along with its tournament volunteers raised $272,198 by financing seat subscriptions to complete the 57,000 seat, horseshoe-shaped stadium. The new sports facility was named the “Rose Bowl” by local reporter Harlan W. Hall in 1923, and was dedicated and deeded to the city of Pasadena that same year.


The Tournament of Roses Association has made improvements on the Rose Bowl Stadium throughout the years enhancing its appearance, safety and seating capacity. Beginning in 1928, the open end of the stadium was enclosed adding 19,000 seats. Since then renovations have added nearly 45,000 seats raising the guest capacity to 90,000.

In its endeavor to continually bring improvements to the Rose Bowl Stadium, the Tournament of Roses Association accepted the city’s request to renovate the stadium’s press box built in 1961 by the Tournament. The new press box can accommodate approximately 1,200 including the media, coaching staffs and premium seating ticket holders and also offers catering services.  In the summer of 2007, with a $16 million dollar transformation of locker rooms and a media center.  Approximately 25,000 square feet of locker room, showers, restrooms, storage and corridors were constructed on the south end of the stadium below the Court of Champions.

On October 12, 2010 the Pasadena City Council approved a $152 million financing plan for a major renovation of the Rose Bowl Stadium. It is the largest investment in the history of the 88-year-old iconic structure. The focus of the multimillion dollar, three-phase project is improving tunnel ingress/egress, improving concourse circulation, increasing the number of concession stands and restrooms, providing state-of-the-art premium seating products in a rebuilt press box, a new scoreboard and cutting-edge video board. The renovation will also address key stadium infrastructure needs that will allow the facility to continue to operate for decades to come. Work would begin in January 2011 and continue outside the football season through August 2013.

Stadium Facts

  • Capacity
    Approximately 91,000; for the Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO, seating capacity is 87,400.

    The 1973 Rose Bowl Game attendance of 106,869 is the stadium record, as well as the NCAA bowl game record. The match-up featured undefeated and No. 1 USC vs. No. 3 Ohio State. The Trojans beat the Buckeyes 42–17.
     
  • Playing Surface
    Natural turf playing surface of Hybrid Bermuda grass overseeded with rye. On game day, the turf is cut to approximately 9/16  to 5/8 of an inch.
     
  • Lighting
    There are 357 high intensity, metal halide light fixtures that are directed to the stadium field.