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The Rose Bowl Operating Company and the city of Pasadena, California, have filed a lawsuit against UCLA for allegedly attempting to move its college football games from the Rose Bowl stadium to SoFi Stadium, ESPN reports.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday (October 29), accuses the university of "profoundly" betraying trust attempting to relocate its home games from the iconic Rose Bowl stadium to the newer Inglewood stadium, the current home of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. UCLA has played its home games at the Rose Bowl for 43 years.
"The City expects UCLA will honor the terms of the [lease] agreement, and the City Council will do everything in its power to protect and defend the City's contractual rights," the city of Pasadena said in a statement obtained by ESPN on Thursday (October 30). "... The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Stadium, steadfast partners to UCLA for more than four decades, are extremely disappointed with UCLA's attempt to terminate the lease."
UCLA has a lease with the Rose Bowl through 2044, but the stadium is located 26 miles from the school's campus and has seen a decrease in attendance during recent years, with the Bruins currently averaging an estimated 35,000 for its first four home games. SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020, is significantly closer, about 12 miles from UCLA's campus.
"This lawsuit arises in an era when money too often eclipses meaning and the pursuit of profit threatens to erase the very traditions that breathe life into institutions," the suit claims via ESPN. "Some commitments are too fundamental to be traded away."