$50 million donation supercharges university football with state-of-the-art facility from Ronald H. and Lois Bloom

The University of Southern California has received a $50 million gift from the Ronald H. Bloom family.

As the result of this gift The Bloom Football Performance Center is on its way to becoming a reality.

The donation, which underwrites the new Bloom Football Performance Center, is not just a headline-making act of generosity—it is the continuation of a philanthropic story decades in the making.

For Ronald H. Bloom, USC is not simply a university; it is a family touchstone.

Bloom, who built a career as a successful investor and entrepreneur, has often spoken about how USC shaped his outlook on achievement, teamwork, and community.

The Bloom family’s giving has long reflected those same values, encompassing causes in healthcare, education, and community development.

Yet this $50 million gift stands as their most visible and transformative contribution to date.

The Bloom Football Performance Center is envisioned as a bold architectural and athletic statement. Spanning more than 160,000 square feet, it will include expansive locker rooms, recovery and sports medicine wings, state-of-the-art training facilities, and spaces designed to attract and support top recruits.

Its recruiting terrace and grand lobby will not only overlook the fields of play but also showcase the trophies, championships, and iconic history of USC football. For generations of Trojans, it will become a cathedral of memory and aspiration.

USC President Carol Folt has described the Bloom gift as central to her “athletics moonshot,” a sweeping campaign to propel Trojan sports into the Big Ten era with infrastructure and support systems befitting a national powerhouse.

Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen has emphasized the broader resonance: “This is about more than a building. It is about creating the conditions for USC athletes to excel, and about honoring the generosity of a family whose legacy will be felt for decades.”

The gift also pushes USC’s Athletics West campaign past a defining threshold. To date, the campaign has secured more than $174 million of its $225–250 million goal, with the Bloom family’s donation representing the largest single gift in the drive. It is a vivid demonstration of how one family’s philanthropy can energize an entire community.

The timing is fitting. With construction already underway—the Bloom Center is scheduled to open in Summer 2026, just ahead of USC’s second season in the Big Ten.

For head coach Lincoln Riley, the facility represents more than bricks and steel. “This is about setting a new standard in college football,” Riley said. “The Bloom family’s vision ensures that USC remains a destination for the very best.”

What makes the story of the Blooms’ philanthropy particularly compelling is how seamlessly it threads together personal memory and public mission.

For Ronald Bloom, USC was once a place of formative experiences; now, through this gift, he and his family are ensuring that future generations of student-athletes will find their own paths shaped by the same spirit of excellence.

And in a small but telling gesture this week, members of the USC football team brought boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts to the construction site, sharing them with the crews laboring in the summer heat. It was a simple act of gratitude that reflected the larger ethos of the Bloom gift: community, connection, and the belief that no achievement is built alone.

With this $50 million donation, the Bloom family has not only etched their name onto the walls of a facility but into the very narrative of USC itself—an enduring reminder of what it means to give back to the institutions that once gave so much.