College Football Program Forced to Sell $8 Tickets After Nearly 62K Empty Seats & 0–2 Start

The UCLA Bruins’ 2025 season has gone from bad to flat-out embarrassing in just two weeks, and the struggles extend far beyond the field. Apart from a 10-43 defeat in their season opener, the Bruins achieved a new low against the Utes Football on September 1. Following an additional defeat to the UNLV Rebels, ticket prices for their upcoming game against Jason Eck’s New Mexico Lobos at the Rose Bowl dropped to as low as $8.

To understand how bad it has gotten, we must take a look at the numbers. UCLA’s Rose Bowl’s maximum capacity is 89,702. But against the Utah Utes in Week 1, the announced attendance was just 35,502. The number still did not make sense to the reporters in the press box because of too many empty seats. After inquiring about the same to athletic officials, the tally of people who actually made it to the stadium was just 27,785. Now, that’s nearly 62,000 empty seats in Week 1.

According to Ben Bolch of the L.A. Times, the 35k figure given to the reporters was not incorrect either, because apart from people purchasing tickets to watch the game, the number also included “credentialed individuals such as players, coaches, staff, vendors, cheerleaders, band members, performers and even media.” The Culver City Observer further pointed out that among the crowd was a “a large contingent of Utah fans“. It gets depressing when we compare these figures to 2014, when UCLA averaged 76,650 fans per game. The contrast feels like night and day.

The Rose Bowl’s low attendance has been a deepening concern for a while now. The program’s five worst season attendances in the last 45 years have come over the last five seasons, which were not interrupted by COVID-19. Even in the last season, the program ranked 16th among the 18 BIG 10 Conference teams, ahead of only Maryland and Northwestern. Apart from their continuous poor start, UCLA has some other challenges as well, which cause low attendance.

As Ben Bolch reported, UCLA’s home stadium is situated 26 miles away from the campus, and since the classes do not start until late September, it significantly affects the headcounts. Another reason could be the late kickoff. For example, the Utah game started at 8 p.m. And unfortunately, on the field, things aren’t much prettier either.

In the opener, Utah manhandled UCLA, racking up nearly 500 yards while the Bruins’ offense got a measly 220. Week 2 against a Dan Mullen-led squad was further proof of a program in decline. A 30–23 loss. Despite the perfect start, the Rebels are still a Mountain West team. So, when the ticket prices for the New Mexico game next Friday went as low as $8, it was not surprising.

As of now, the tickets for the next UCLA game are selling for as low as $13. With the entire season still ahead, do you think the Bruins will find a solution to the low turnaround at the Rose Bowl?