The Rose Bowl is a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. Its current official capacity is 92,542. The stadium is a National Historic Landmark.

The Rose Bowl was designed by architect Myron Hunt in 1921. His design was influenced by the Yale Bowl (New Haven, Connecticut, built 1914). The Rose Bowl was under construction from 1921-1922. The stadium was dedicated on January 1, 1923 when Penn State played USC. Originally built as a horseshoe, the stadium was expanded several times over the years. The southern stands were completed in 1928, making the stadium a complete bowl.

It is best-known in the United States for its hosting of the Rose Bowl, the most famous college football postseason bowl game. The Rose Bowl Game is commonly referred to as "The Granddaddy of Them All" because of its stature as the oldest of all the bowl games. The facility, however, has hosted countless other events, including The Junior Rose Bowl from 1946-71 and 1976-77. Between 1946-66 and 1976-77, the game pitted the California Junior College football champions vs. The NJCAA football champions for the National Championship. Pasadena Bowl football game from 1967-71; it was billed as the Junior Rose Bowl the first two years, where two teams for the NCAA College Division competed. It has been the home football field for UCLA since 1982. It was also the home ground for the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer from the team's inception in 1996 until it moved into the soccer-specific Home Depot Center in 2003; the venue additionally hosted the 1998 MLS Cup. It also hosted the Soccer events for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Local college Caltech played most home games in the Rose Bowl from the time of its construction until they gave up football in 1993. (They claimed to play before the most number of empty seats in the nation)

Since losing both its local teams in the LA market in 1993, the National Football League had been looking to either start or relocate a franchise to the LA area. One of the strong candidates was a renovated Rose Bowl. However, after many years of varying offers, no deal could be struck between NFL owners and the stadium's owner: the City of Pasadena, following a vote of disapproval by its residents in November 2006.

Like other large municipally-owned, football-oriented stadiums, the Rose Bowl runs on a yearly operational loss.[1] While it generates funds with the annual lease with UCLA ($1.5m), the Tournament of Roses ($900k), and a regularly hosted flea market ($900k), it makes up the loss by relying on funds generated by the adjacent city-owned golf course ($2m).[1] While the stadium is able to keep operating in this financial set-up, it is unable to finance many of the capital improvements it needs to be considered a modern facility, including new seats, wider aisles, additional exits, a wider concourse, a renovated press box, a state-of-the-art video scoreboard, new field lighting, additional suites and a club. The estimated cost for such improvements ranges from $250 million and $300 million.[1] The stadium currently has long-term leases with its two major tenants, the Tournament of Roses (2019) and UCLA (2023).

The stadium seating has been reconfigured several times since its original construction in 1922. The South end was filled in to complete the bowl and more seats have been added. The original wooden benches were replaced by aluminium benches in 1969. The maximum stated seating capacity was 104,594 from 1972 to 1997. Slightly different figures are given for current capacity. UCLA reports the capacity at 91,136. The Tournament of Roses reports the capacity between 90,000 and 93,000. The 2007 Rose Bowl game had a crowd of 93,852.

Rose Bowl Game record: USC-Ohio State Rose Bowl game on January 1st, 1973 Attendance: 106,869 (This is an NCAA bowl game record)
NFL Super Bowl Record: Pittsburgh Steelers - Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl XIV January 20th, 1980 Attendance: 103,985 (This is an NFL record)
1984 Summer Olympics (Games of the XXIII Olympiad) Football (Soccer) Tournament - France defeated Brazil 2-0 Attendance: 101,799
College football regular season record: UCLA-USC November 19, 1988 Attendance: 100,741
June 16, 1996: In an historic doubleheader witnessed by 92,216 fans, the U.S. National Team plays Mexico for the championship of U.S. Cup '96 followed by the conference leaders Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Tampa Bay Mutiny. The crowd was the largest ever to see a U.S. professional soccer league match.
FIFA Women's World Cup 1999 final on July 10th, 1999 was the most attended women's sports event in history with an official attendance of 90,185

The stadium will host the 2007 Drum Corps International World Championships August 7–11, 2007.

It hosted auditions for the top American television show, American Idol, on August 8, 2006.

The stadium hosts commencement ceremonies for John Muir High School and Pasadena High School.

Also hosts the annual football homecoming game, called the Turkey Tussle, between Pasadena High School and John Muir High School, in mid November (either 10, 11, or 12)

On June 18, 1988 Depeche Mode played their last concert of the Music for the Masses tour at the sold-out Rose Bowl in front of 80,000+ people. The concert was recorded and filmed for the album and documentary movie 101 which was released in 1989.

Every second Sunday of each month, The Rose Bowl Flea Market takes place on the parking lots.