A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied a request from the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena seeking a temporary restraining order in their attempt to keep UCLA from moving its home football games from the Rose Bowl to SoFi Stadium.
In his ruling Wednesday, judge James Chalfant said those entities had not demonstrated an emergency that would necessitate such an action. However, Chalfant suggested the plaintiffs’ attorneys seek discovery information regarding the school’s discussions with SoFi Stadium and file a motion for a preliminary injunction, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reported.
Opened in 2020 in suburban Inglewood, SoFi Stadium is home to the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers and Rams, as well as college football's annual LA Bowl. It features a synthetic playing surface, compared to the Rose Bowl's natural grass.
Related: Pasadena, Rose Bowl Seek Restraining Order Against UCLA as Bruins Mull Move to SoFi Stadium
Nima Mohebbi, an attorney representing the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena, said he had filed a public records request in an attempt to gather information about those discussions and was pleased with the judge’s statements, Bolch reported.
“Even though he found that there was no immediate emergency,” Mohebbi said, “he made very clear in a lot of his statements that there’s irreparable harm, that UCLA has an obligation to play at the Rose Bowl through 2044 and we’re very confident in our facts of this case. So I think all in, we feel very, very good.”
According to Bolch, when a UCLA attorney contended during the roughly 80-minute court session that the school’s relationship with the Rose Bowl was breaking down, Chalfant said, “I don’t know why UCLA can’t just show up and play football at the Rose Bowl. You don’t need to talk to them at all.”
"Chalfant said he did not agree with the UCLA attorneys’ contention that the Rose Bowl lease amounted to a personal services contract for which specific performance — essentially an order compelling the Bruins to remain tenants — was not available," Bolch wrote for the Times. "The judge said specific performance could be available in a situation involving an actual breach or an anticipatory breach of the contract."
UCLA has played its home football games at the Rose Bowl since 1982, and Rose Bowl officials have filed litigation intended to compel the Bruins to honor a lease that runs through the 2043 season, saying that monetary damages would not be enough to offset the loss of their anchor tenant.
When asked by Chalfant if they intended to terminate the agreement, attorneys representing UCLA shook their heads, Bolch reported.
