UCLA’s new athletics director doesn’t just want fans to show up for the football team’s home opener —he’s making it happen.
Tim Harris, the former longtime Lakers executive who took over as the Bruins CEO of athletics and athletics director last week, has purchased 300 tickets that he’s giving away for the team’s game against San Diego State on Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl.
Those who don’t snag the tickets available on a first-come, first-serve basis can get access to a limited number of half-off tickets.
It’s a grand gesture from an alumnus and former soccer goalkeeper who knows what a big turnout means to the players and the school. It’s also incredibly generous given that Harris is working for his alma mater on a pro-bono basis.
A buzz seems to be building for the Bruins under new coach Bob Chesney after the team’s season-opening 45-24 victory over Cal last weekend at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
There was a good turnout of UCLA fans among the sellout crowd of 54,283, with Bruins fans possibly outnumbering their Cal counterparts amid a fast-emptying stadium as UCLA scored the game’s final 21 points.
Chesney credited those fans with energizing his team.
“The fans that showed up up there was absolutely phenomenal,” Chesney said Monday. “The band, to be there, was phenomenal. That was a great setting, one that there was a lot of the right color blue in the stands up there that I was really impressed by and proud of, and they stayed the course and were there the whole way through.”
Chesney went on to say the Bruins need fans to also show up Saturday, particularly since students aren’t back in school until later in the month.
“We just need this community to come out and support at a level that they’ve never done in the past bunch of years,” Chesney said. “I told you it would be different on our side — we need it to be different on their side as well.”
Attendance has been an ongoing problem for UCLA since early in the Jim Mora era, when the team set a home attendance record by averaging 76,650 fans during the 2014 season.
The Bruins have posted their five lowest home attendance figures at the Rose Bowl starting in 2021, prompting UCLA to install giant tarps in the end zones to cover empty seats. UCLA’s announced average attendance last season of 37,282 was a record low at the stadium it has called home since the 1982 season.
It should be warm but not unbearably hot for the 4:15 p.m. kickoff Saturday at the Rose Bowl, with a high temperature of 87 degrees forecast for Pasadena.
