{"id":128386,"date":"2026-01-10T20:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128386\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T20:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:25:11","slug":"emails-reveal-that-ucla-and-sofi-stadium-talks-date-back-to-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128386\/","title":{"rendered":"Emails reveal that UCLA and SoFi Stadium talks date back to 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New documents filed Friday in the Rose Bowl\u2019s breach-of-contract case<\/a> against UCLA<\/a> that also accuses Kroenke Sports and Entertainment of meddling<\/a> on behalf of SoFi Stadium revealed communication between UCLA and a top Kroenke executive dating to August 2024.<\/p>\n

An email sent that month from UCLA chief financial officer Stephen Agostini\u2019s assistant to executives from Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and SoFi Stadium sought coordination of a Zoom meeting between the parties in September 2024 under the subject heading \u201cUCLA Football Discussion.\u201d The importance level was listed as \u201chigh.\u201d<\/p>\n

A list of proposed meeting attendees included Agostini; UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond; UCLA athletics chief financial officer Chris Iacoi; Kroenke Sports and Rams president Kevin Demoff; SoFi Stadium executives Greg Kish and Mike Forrester; and Mitchell Ziets, chief executive officer of Tipping Point Sports, a boutique sports advisory firm based in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease review the scheduling opportunities below and let me know what is possible,\u201d wrote Shelley Stanley, Agostini\u2019s executive assistant. \u201cA reply sooner rather than later would be greatly appreciated, given that we are on the heels of the Fall quarter and the beginning of the UCLA football season.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subsequent email sent by Demoff to Agostini in late September 2024 under the subject heading \u201cNext Get Together\u201d inquired about another meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve,\u201d Demoff wrote in the email, \u201cI figured with all of the changes\/craziness that I would give the group some time, but let me know when is a good time to get our teams together to go back through and financials\/pro formas related to SoFi in order to help moving things along. Next week is poor for me personally but we are ready to jump in!\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of another email exchange between Demoff and Agostini in December 2024 under the subject heading \u201cUpdated Projections,\u201d Demoff wrote that he \u201chad our group re-run everything to really focus on reducing expenses and where we think there is opportunity for UCLA to grow revenue. Attached is the deck that they have provided. I\u2019ve been scrambling all week between LA, Denver, Dallas and now NYC and haven\u2019t had a ton of opportunity to connect on the phone, but wanted to share this with you ahead of the holidays so that you can start to dig in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email time-stamped 13 minutes later, Agostini replied that he would \u201clook at this now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attachment that Demoff referenced was not included as part of the discovery documents related to the ongoing dispute between UCLA and the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena. The latter entities are trying to force the school to honor the terms of a lease agreement that does not include an opt-out clause and requires the Bruins to keep playing at the Rose Bowl through the end of the 2043 season.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs have alleged that UCLA abandoning the Rose Bowl, where the school has played home football games since 1982, would cause \u201cirreparable harm necessitating equitable relief and for which monetary damages alone would be inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the City of Pasadena faced $184,355,000 in outstanding debt on bonds issued to finance stadium modernization and renovations as of last June. Revenue from UCLA football games has been used to service the debt as part of the agreement between the entities, ensuring that Pasadena taxpayers would not be burdened with that expense through withdrawals from a general fund used to support city services.<\/p>\n

The Rose Bowl is also expected to spend at least $28.5 million before the 2026 season to construct a field-level club in the south end zone that would enhance UCLA\u2019s game-day experience and generate revenue for the school.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, UCLA\u2019s athletic department is seeking new sources of revenue after running up $219.55 million in debt during the past six fiscal years, though an athletic department spokesperson has said that deficit has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero.<\/p>\n

UCLA has not publicly stated its intentions for its football future other than to say it continues to evaluate its options. But the new documents show that the school has been contemplating the possibility of a move for more than a year. The Bruins were given an idea of what it would be like to play at SoFi Stadium after their appearance at the venue to play Boise State in the 2023 L.A. Bowl. The game drew an announced crowd of 32,780. <\/p>\n

Last month, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and SoFi Stadium were added as defendants to the Rose Bowl\u2019s complaint against UCLA and accused of tortious interference. UCLA and SoFi Stadium officials have said they would not comment on ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n

A hearing on UCLA\u2019s motion to compel arbitration and keep the proceedings out of open court is set to be heard Jan. 22 in Los Angeles Superior Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New documents filed Friday in the Rose Bowl\u2019s breach-of-contract case against UCLA that also accuses Kroenke Sports and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[66238,1409,66239,19944,967,66240,48,52,51,47,50,49,66242,1977,20390,10657,4265,5712,45692,1092,66241],"class_list":["post-128386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-agostini","tag-city","tag-demoff","tag-email","tag-entertainment","tag-kroenke-sports","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-outstanding-debt","tag-pasadena","tag-revenue","tag-rose-bowl","tag-school","tag-sofi-stadium","tag-subject","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-football-discussion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}