Inside The Games: Rose Bowl eyes legacy beyond LA28

The historic sporting ground is gearing up for its third Olympic show in 2028 with a $30 million (€25.6m) transformation ahead of hosting the men's and women's football semifinals and gold medal matches.

The Rose Bowl Operating Company broke ground in January as part of its strategic investment towards modernising the 103-year-old stadium. The national landmark's south end will see 5,000 underutilised bench seats converted into a field-level club featuring slightly more than 1,000 VIP seats.

"The Rose Bowl Stadium continues to honour its past by investing in its future," Jens Weiden, CEO of the Rose Bowl Stadium, told Pasadena Now in January. "This project ensures that the most important moments in sports and entertainment will be staged in a setting that reflects both tradition and progress."

Aside from premium seating, the upgrade will feature enhanced hospitality spaces and an outdoor patio that will welcome athletes, performers, and fans alike. A reception area will feature photos that tell the story of the stadium. "A lot of people look at the Rose Bowl as a piece of art," Weiden said in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I look at it more like a museum where the art hangs. You have to make the museum approachable, otherwise nobody comes to see the art."

A dining area will feature various seating areas, showcasing the craftsmanship that has made the city California's architectural centre. The Time reported that the sunny state's weather will also be in play, with contiguous flow between the indoor and outdoor areas of the new club. However, on hot days, seamless glass partitions can keep the indoor space air-conditioned.

Dedan Brozino, Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation president, stressed that "every enhancement to the stadium … is not about changing the stadium's identity — it is about strengthening it." Planter boxes will separate the new zone from the field, featuring roses tended to by stadium staff, honouring the country's oldest football game. Home of the UCLA Bruins, the South End Zone Field Club project is expected to be completed by the start of the 2026 college football season.

While the Bruins have been considering a move to the SoFi Stadium, another Olympic venue in Inglewood,  UCLA announced in a statement in February that it will keep its Pasadena home, at least for the 2026 season. UCLA's current lease with the Rose Bowl runs through 2044 and has been a point of friction between the two parties, eventually leading to a lawsuit from the historic venue, which alleged that the move would cause more than a billion dollars in damages to the city of Pasadena and its residents. 

The stadium, however, is determined to keep the sporting grounds relevant through its The Lasting Legacy Campaign. Eight major improvement projects, including the South End Zone, are set for completion by and beyond the 2028 Olympic Games. Finished plans include refurbishing the historic marquee sign, East Side Safe Standing section, and the Seating Bowl sound system replacement — to enhance concerts and performances.

Gas and water infrastructure replacements and improvements are also set to be made and the venue recently received a federal allocation of $1.09 million (€940,000) to do so. "In two years, billions of people around the world will be watching as Gold Medal matches for Olympic Soccer are played right here in Pasadena. We cannot welcome the world to a stadium running on nearly 100-year-old pipes that could fail," underscored US Congresswoman Laura Friedman. Mobile service enhancements and an upgraded videoboard experience are also in the works.