Rose Bowl to bid for as many as four Copa America soccer games

The city of Pasadena took a big step Thursday toward participation in next summer’s prestigious Copa America soccer tournament when the Rose Bowl Operating Co. authorized General Manager Darryl Dunn to begin negotiating with U.S. Soccer for the right to host as many as four games.

Two dozen cities have expressed interest in staging games in the 16-team, 32-game tournament, which is being held in the U.S. for the first time. Since no city will host fewer than two games, no more than 16 sites will be chosen. Organizers are expected to announce those finalists before the end of the month, when it will also choose the host city for the tournament final.

The tournament, widely considered soccer’s third-best international, behind only the World Cup and the Euros, will be held June 3 to 26.

Which teams will play in which venues won’t be known until the tournament draw is held, but the field includes South American powers Brazil, Argentina and Chile as well as Mexico and the U.S. Placing at least one of Mexico’s three group-play games at the Rose Bowl is considered likely given that Mexico played two games in Southern California this year and drew more than 88,000 fans each time.

The Rose Bowl is limited to 12 “displacement events” for 2016. Six UCLA football games, the annual Rose Bowl game and the AmericaFest Fourth of July celebration are already locked in, leaving room for just four more events. In Dunn’s proposal to the RBOC, he estimated four games at the Rose Bowl will bring in $1 million in revenue for the group.

The Rose Bowl, site of two World Cup finals, has drawn the two largest U.S. soccer crowds of the year – 93,226 for an exhibition between the Galaxy and Barcelona and 93,723 for last month’s CONCACAF Cup playoff between the U.S. and Mexico.