The Rose Bowl Stadium is set to host the gold-medal matches for men’s and women’s soccer for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, officials revealed Tuesday morning during the International Olympic Committee meeting in Milan.
The men’s soccer final will be played at the Rose Bowl on July 28, while the women will face off the next day on July 29. The stadium can accommodate approximately 90,000 soccer fans visiting Los Angeles in 2028.
In order to make it to the finals at the Rose Bowl, Olympic soccer teams will first have to contend across several U.S. cities. Venues for the previous rounds include New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose and San Diego.
LA28 Chief Executive Reynold Hoover championed in the Tuesday announcement that the host cities “will help bring these Olympics to the world,” extending “Olympic spirit coast to coast.”
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity for Pasadena. It’s a city that’s used to being on the biggest stage in the biggest moments,” said USC Professor Jeff Fellenzer, who teaches sports media classes at the Annenberg School for Communication.
“The Rose Bowl stadium has hosted World Cups, Super Bowls,” Fellenzer added. He finds the management team at the stadium is “very nimble” and “very able to handle the enormity of these mega events.”
For Pasadena resident and USC sophomore majoring in law, history, and culture, Hailey Wilson, hosting the games in the area goes beyond the competition.
“I think it’s especially important for me after the wildfires,” she said.
The games will take place three years after the Eaton fire burned 10,000 acres in Pasadena in January 2025.
“It will be our first huge event where the community is able to come together and see our teams play, and be able to support a place that is healing,” said Wilson.
However, other L.A. natives do not echo the same hopeful sentiment. Jonny Coleman is an organizer with grassroots coalition NOlympics, which advocates against the potential negative consequences the Olympics could have on L.A. He pointed to the time and money city officials have put into the games.
“That could be spent rebuilding Pasadena in a more, you know, sustainable, intentional way,” he said.
Coleman pointed to the impact that “Olympic spirit” could have on local communities through those venues.
“The Olympics, what they do in every city around the world, not just LA, is they try to remove visible poverty,” he said. He said street vendors, homeless people and sex workers are all part of the “informal economies” that “will become more and more undesirable for city officials.”
Fellenzer also noted that the influx of visitors to Pasadena could overwhelm the city’s housing and hotel capacity. Prices for the available hotel rooms are expected to skyrocket as well, according to the LA Times. Fellenzer said visitors might have to accept not staying within walking distance of the stadium.
Still, no matter what the housing situation will look like, Fellenzer is confident visitors will still flock to Pasadena. “The Rose Bowl stadium is a place sports fans in this country look at as a symbol of excellence.”