UCLA caught inflating attendance numbers by up to 30% as they plot escape from iconic stadium, and now the city is taking them to court

UCLA is dealing with a major problem after getting caught lying about how many fans come to their football games. The school has been reporting much higher attendance numbers than what actually shows up at the Rose Bowl. Now, the city of Pasadena is suing them because UCLA wants to break their contract and move to a different stadium.

The Bruins have been playing at the Rose Bowl since 1982. Before that, they spent many years at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they shared space with USC. The Rose Bowl can fit more than 80,000 people and sits about 25 miles away from campus. Back in 2014, things were going well and an average of 76,703 fans showed up to each game. But those days are long gone, and the numbers have gotten much worse as the team has struggled on the field.

According to Bro Bible, UCLA has been padding their numbers by somewhere between 20 and 30 percent compared to how many people are really there. The school said their average attendance for 2024 was 46,805 fans, but the real count appears to be way lower. When they played Utah in their season opener, UCLA claimed 35,032 people were in the stands, but reporters counted closer to 27,785 actual fans.

The poor turnout has pushed UCLA to look for a way out

The team is having trouble getting even half the stadium filled these days. This has led school leaders to decide they want out of the Rose Bowl and into SoFi Stadium instead. SoFi Stadium is where the Rams and Chargers play their NFL games, and it happens to be closer to campus than the Rose Bowl.

But there is a big problem with this plan. UCLA has a deal with Pasadena to keep playing at the Rose Bowl until 2044. When UCLA told city officials they were planning to leave anyway, Pasadena did not take it well. The city filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to stop them from walking away.

In their legal complaint, Pasadena called UCLA’s move “a profound betrayal of trust.” The city has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the years fixing up and improving the Rose Bowl. Losing UCLA would be a huge blow financially, and the lawsuit claims the damage “could easily exceed a billion dollars.”

The city wants the court to make UCLA stick to their agreement and keep playing there until 2044 like they promised. The financial stakes of backing out of this kind of commitment are similar to the kind of game-changing decisions that can turn everything upside down for a sports team.

UCLA has not said anything publicly about the lawsuit yet. This looks like it will turn into a messy legal fight that could drag on for a while and cause problems for both sides. Just like other recent public disputes in the sports world, how UCLA deals with this situation could damage their reputation for a long time.