The simple fact that UCLA has long been content to use a "home" stadium a historic relic a full hour drive from campus, and still has no plan whatsoever to rectify that huge disadvantage, should obliterate any claim that UCLA adequately supports football.
After all these decades of slow decline, UCLA fans still mostly scoff at the notion of altering the wonderful Rose Bowl setup. The oft-cited excuse that the rich neighbors would protest has never been valid. Do UCLA fans expect the rest of the football industry to give UCLA some sort of special difficult-neighbors handicap? The real reason for the attachment to the Rose Bowl is obvious. UCLA, its bureaucracy and its alumni, mostly do. not. care.
And why is that? All kinds of socio-economic reasons. But it doesn’t help that most UCLA students never lay eyes on the “home” football stadium. Over the decades, that’s bound to have a dampening effect.
UCLA compounds the home venue problem by using the quarter system, so students aren't even in distant Westwood until the 4th week of the season.
Many Rose Bowl apologists will cite high attendance during the Mora years (2012-2017). Uncontextualized comparisons to the Mora era are misleading. For some bizarre reason, the NFL was content to have no L.A. franchise from 1995 to 2016. But two NFL franchises returned to L.A. in Mora’s final two years, and they moved into magnificent SoFi stadium in 2020. So UCLA suddenly went from competing for fans with only Southern Cal (and its dumpy old stadium), to competing with SC plus not one but two NFL franchises.
I could go on. I suggested here at least 15 years ago that since it does not adequately support football, UCLA would do better to drop down to Division II (or whatever they call the still-amateur league). The cutthroat professional setup of 2025 FBS football only makes me more inclined to wish for that scenario. The whole phony 2025 “college” football industry is an embarrassment to any self-respecting university, but the embarrassment is especially acute for UCLA. Stop the bleeding!