ROSE BOWL HISTORY

The Rose Bowl opened October 8 1922. It normally seats over 90,000 fans but has set a record holding over 105,000 ticket holders. It is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena , California , close to Los Angeles . The stadium is overflowing with exciting history and the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. The stadium was given the name "Rose Bowl" by a police reporter named Harlan W. Hall, who had the Yale Bowl in mind when thinking of how an expanded structure would look. 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, and was the venue for the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final and the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final.

The most well known event of the Rose Bowl is the game now known as the Rose Bowl Game which was played at Tournament Park until 1922. After twelve years, the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena , California , was still struggling to attract interest in 1901, and its organizers were thinking of moving it from New Years Day to Washington's Birthday. James Wagner, a newcomer from the east, was elected president of the tournament in the fall of 1901. He suggested staging a post-season football game to draw more interest and spectators. The game eventually became very successful and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, the game's organizer, realized that the temporary stands were inadequate for a crowd of more than 40,000, and sought to build a better, permanent stadium. and that they did. 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 for about a year from 1921 to 1922. The design of the stadium was intended to accommodate as many patrons as possible, sitting close to the action. The first portion of the stadium was completed for less money than had been budgeted, and the seating capacity at the time was 57,000.

The stadium seating has been reconfigured several times since its original construction in 1922. 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 . Now Pennsylvania State University 's upgrade to Beaver Stadium holds the record of (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. Benches are not used for some events since the ticket holders can not see through the standing players or others on the field. 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.

The first game was on October 28, 1922 between Cal State and The University of Southern California (USC). Cal defeated USC 12–0. This was the only loss for USC and California finished the season undefeated. California declined the invitation to the 1923 Rose Bowl game and USC went in their place.

In 1999, Sports Illustrated listed the Rose Bowl at number 20 in the Top 20 Venues of the Twentieth Century. In 2007, Sports Illustrated named the Rose Bowl the number one venue in college sports.

Currently construction has begun on the first phase of a three-year, $152 million renovation of the iconic 88-year-old sports venue. The renovation, due to be completed by January 2014, will ultimately expand the press box by increasing the number of premium seats from about 580 to about 2,400. ... In addition, the renovation will widen up to 12 access tunnels, double the number of concession stands and increase restrooms.