UCLA is scared of USC fans making themselves heard at the Rose Bowl

Matt Zemek
·4 min read
1

Is it just more rivalry smack talk, this time from a website attached to one of the two teams involved in the game, or is it a point of fact?

We report, you decide: It is a point of fact that UCLA is keeping several thousand seats covered by a tarp and therefore unavailable to be sold to the public for the USC game this Saturday.

Keep in mind that UCLA is preventing the Rose Bowl Stadium’s full seating capacity from being used at a time when the program is hemorrhaging money and is significantly in debt. The move to the Big Ten is being made to address this cash-flow problem and wipe out this money deficit.

UCLA is still going to prevent nearly 12,000 tickets from being sold? One can reach only one possible conclusion: The Bruins don’t want 12,000 more USC fans in the building.

We have a lot more on this story below:

THE NEWS

THE NUMBERS

70,865 is nearly 12,000 below the capacity (close to 83,000) for UCLA home games. The Rose Bowl’s full capacity is close to 92,000, but that is for the Rose Bowl Game, in which field-level seats with terrible visibility are also sold to the public.

UCLA THIS SEASON

UCLA has had several tarps covering seats at the Rose Bowl Stadium, which have limited the available seating capacity to nearly 58,000 for the non-USC home games on the Bruins’ schedule.

Two sections of tarp will be removed to create the 70,865 capacity for the USC game: UCLA Health and Jordan Logo sponsored tarps.

THIS GAME VERSUS USC

While the UCLA Health and Jumpman (Jordan Logo) tarps are being removed, the UCLA tarps are staying.

So: UCLA had nearly 58,000 available seats for most regular-season games in 2022. The Bruins could allow 83,000 into the stadium but are choosing to limit themselves to just under 71,000 at a time when they badly need cash flow and revenue streams.

They would rather not make extra money than allow more USC fans into the building. Period.

VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE UCLA AND JUMPMAN TARPS (JUMPMAN TARPS WILL BE REMOVED)

WITHOUT THE TARP

COVER-UP

FULL-STADIUM VIEW

REMINDER

When UCLA fans don’t show up for Bowling Green in searing heat, it’s no big deal, but for the USC game, the idea of not making all 83,000 seats available represents an intentional decision not to make money, given that USC fans would be waiting to snap up the tickets.

This is not a criticism of UCLA fan loyalty, but of purposefully not making money in order to keep USC fans out of the stadium.

UCLA ANALYST TONY SIRACUSA TALKS ABOUT THIS ISSUE AT THE VOICE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL WITH TROJANS WIRE

ANOTHER ANGLE

MORE STADIUM VIEWS

FINAL POINT

Imagine any SEC or Big Ten school doing what UCLA is doing. You can’t (unless maybe Vanderbilt).

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire