Written by The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., near Los Angeles. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year’s Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-10 Conference. It hosted events during the 1932 and 1984 Olympics[6], and was the venue for the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final.
The stadium was designed by architect Myron Hunt in 1921. His design was influenced by the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, which was built in 1914. The Arroyo Seco dry riverbed was selected as the location for the stadium. The Rose Bowl was under construction from 1921 to 1922.
The stadium seating has been reconfigured several times since its original construction in 1922. The South end was filled in to complete the bowl and more seats have been added. The original wooden benches were replaced by aluminum benches in 1969. For many years, the Rose Bowl had the largest American Football stadium capacity in the United States, eventually being surpassed by Michigan Stadium in 1956.[9][10], then later by the Pennsylvania State University’s upgrade to Beaver Stadium (110,753) in 2000. The Rose Bowl’s maximum stated seating capacity was 100,594 from 1972 to 1997. Capacity was lowered following the 1998 Rose Bowl when benches were replaced with individual seats except in the end-zones. Slightly different figures are given for the current capacity, for the lower level seats behind the team benches are not used for some events since the spectators can not see through the standing players or others on the field. UCLA reports the capacity at 91,136.[1] The Tournament of Roses reports the capacity at 92,542.[2] The 2006 Rose Bowl game, which was also the BCS championship game, had a crowd of 93,986.[11] In the 2011 contest between TCU and Wisconsin, the listed attendance is 94,118. As of 2008, the Rose Bowl is number eight on the List of American football stadiums by capacity, and is still the largest stadium that hosts post-season bowl games.[12]
In 1999, Sports Illustrated listed the Rose Bowl at number 20 in the Top 20 Venues of the Twentieth Century.[13] In 2007, Sports Illustrated named the Rose Bowl the number one venue in college sports.[14]