Attendance for opener was less than 50% of new capacity for Rose Bowl
LOS ANGELES >> Coach Chip Kelly and the UCLA football team produced a successful performance against Hawai’i in a season-opening nonconference game that was nationally televised.
Running back Zach Charbonnet garnered some national attention as well after his three touchdowns and 106-yard rushing performance on six carries.
Visuals of the Rose Bowl shown throughout the game sparked conversation on social media and national radio among other places over the weekend.
It was the first time in 637 days that fans were allowed in the stadium to watch a Bruins home game.
UCLA announced 32,982 in attendance for the sweltering Saturday, with temperatures in the high 90s, for the first of a three-game nonconference homestand.
It was one of the first public college sporting events to take place since L.A. County loosened health restrictions and vaccines were given out this year.
The Bruins’ record low for a home game is 32,513 against Oregon State on Nov. 7, 1992.
The Rose Bowl has had the ability to seat “well over 100,000” fans but the most recent seating capacity was 91,136, according to the UCLA athletics website.
The stadium had a chunk of the seating on the North end covered with six tarps, four of them each holding a letter to spell out U-C-L-A.
A university spokesperson told the Southern California News Group that the maximum capacity for the Rose Bowl with tarps was 69,747. The given numbers would mean the stadium was 47.3% full on game day.
UCLA will host LSU for another nationally televised nonconference game this weekend at the Rose Bowl.
“I think it’s a huge game,” Kelly said when asked how he would encourage the fan base to come out to the game. “You get an opportunity to see a really good football team in LSU, and obviously I think we’re off to a good start so it should be a great game.
“I think it’s one of the featured games from a TV standpoint this week but the best place to watch football is at the Rose Bowl.”
UCLA announced it was offering free tickets to the LSU game to all of its students in an effort to help draw a crowd in its favor. The LSU fan base was expected to travel well for a rare West Coast trip. That may change because of Hurricane Ida’s impact in Louisiana. The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday.
Usually, UCLA students are asked to purchase a “Den Pass,” which grants access to all home football and men’s basketball games along with priority postseason tickets among other perks.
Students have not returned to campus for the fall quarter and classes don’t begin until Sept. 28.
A separate announcement was made stating Southern California high school students were also invited to attend for free.
The Bruins finished the 2019 football season with an average attendance of 43,848, their lowest at the Rose Bowl since moving to the venue in 1982. The Rose Bowl’s seating configuration for home games has the capacity to hold 80,616 for general admission games.
From 2009 to 2018, the highest attendance average was 76,650 in 2014 (six home games) and 70,285 in 2013 (six home games).