CEO Jens Weiden explains how America’s most iconic stadium became one of sports business’ most innovative venues—and why its greatest asset isn’t the football field.
(This is part 1 of a story based on a Forbes exclusive interview with Jens Weiden July 9, 2026. All quotes are taken directly from a transcript of the interview.)
Long before the opening kickoff, television cameras begin telling the story.
Hovering above Pasadena on New Year’s Day, the Goodyear Blimp rarely starts with the football field below. Instead, it drifts across the San Gabriel Mountains, sweeps over the Arroyo Seco, hovering over one of Southern California’s most recognizable landscapes. Finally, it settles on the grand old stadium nestled within nearly 300 acres of parkland. It is a scene unlike any other in American sports.
It’s All About Placemaking
That distinction, according to Rose Bowl Operating Company CEO Jens Weiden, explains why a 103-year-old National Historic Landmark remains one of the most coveted venues in global sports while newer billion-dollar stadiums continue to emerge across Los Angeles.
“The most unique aspect of the Rose Bowl is its setting,” Weiden said during an exclusive interview. “The setting is a star unto itself.”
It is an observation that has quietly become the guiding philosophy behind one of the most ambitious transformations in the history of the Rose Bowl. While many aging stadiums chase relevance through wholesale reconstruction, Pasadena’s most famous landmark is pursuing a different strategy: leverage the qualities no competitor can duplicate.
The result is not simply a renovated football stadium. It is the evolution of the Rose Bowl into something much larger—a year-round civic destination, an entertainment campus and an economic engine that may become a blueprint for preserving historic sports venues in the twenty-first century.
More Than A Stadium
Professional sports executives often describe venues as assets. Weiden describes the Rose Bowl as something closer to the town square.
That distinction matters. Nearly three million people visit the Rose Bowl campus each year—not because UCLA is playing football or because the College Football Playoff has arrived—but because the grounds surrounding the stadium have become an integral part of everyday life in Pasadena. Residents walk the famed three-mile loop before work. Families picnic beneath mature oaks and sycamores. Golfers tee off on one of California’s busiest municipal courses. Tens of thousands attend the monthly flea market, while charitable walk-runs, community festivals and outdoor concerts have transformed the venue into one of Southern California’s busiest public gathering places.
“It has that European feel of a town square,” Weiden explained. “Large-scale events take place here, but it’s also a community meeting place where people come together.”
That philosophy is a paradigm shift in the way Weiden wants people to think of the property. Rather than viewing the stadium as the centerpiece with supporting amenities surrounding it, management now views the entire 300-acre property as an integrated campus.
“The golf course isn’t just a golf course,” Weiden said. “It’s also a festival grounds.”
That simple shift in thinking has produced dramatic results.
Building A Sustainable Business Model
Historic stadiums often face an uncomfortable reality. They possess irreplaceable heritage but increasingly compete against modern facilities equipped with luxury suites, cutting-edge technology and billion-dollar financing. Rather than attempting to outspend newer competitors such as SoFi Stadium, Weiden believes the Rose Bowl must compete differently. Its competitive advantage isn’t technology.
It is authenticity.
That authenticity extends beyond the architecture. The Rose Bowl occupies a setting that simply cannot be replicated—a nationally recognized landmark framed by mountains, mature parkland and one of California’s most celebrated civic landscapes. Instead of competing directly against enclosed entertainment districts, management has leaned into experiences uniquely suited to the Arroyo Seco.
Outdoor music festivals. Community recreation. Public gathering spaces. Charity events. Historic football traditions. These are activities that celebrate the venue’s natural setting instead of ignoring it. That strategy has also produced financial independence. Revenue generated through the expanded event calendar now funds millions of dollars annually in capital improvements while helping maintain a balanced operating budget—an achievement few municipally owned stadiums can claim.
An Economic Model For Historic Venues
Across professional sports, cities continue wrestling with the same question: Can historic stadiums remain competitive in an era dominated by billion-dollar entertainment complexes?
The Rose Bowl may be demonstrating that they can—but only by redefining what success looks like. Instead of measuring itself solely by attendance on football Saturdays, Pasadena’s landmark has become one of Southern California’s busiest public spaces nearly every day of the year. That evolution is perhaps Weiden’s greatest accomplishment. He hasn’t attempted to make the Rose Bowl into SoFi Stadium. He’s made it more unmistakably the Rose Bowl.
And in doing so, he has transformed one of America’s most cherished landmarks into something even more valuable: a place where history, community and innovation coexist and thrive.
Coming in Part Two: Inside the Rose Bowl’s $80 Million Reinvention Before LA28—how a balanced-budget strategy, Olympic investment and thoughtful preservation are preparing the Rose Bowl for its third Olympic Games while ensuring its legacy for generations to come.
