Popped over to an Auburn fan forum and searched up mentions of "cal". Here are the most recent instances:

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IMHO if he's just average this season we lose to every decent team we play except Cal

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The only thing I can see being an issue with that Cal game is the travel and time zone issues. It's going to be the equivalent of a 9:30 kickoff for Auburn. But that is it. By every other metric, Auburn should dominate Cal

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My gut says there is no way we lose to Cal

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the idea we'd lose to Cal is just stupid. We would have demolished them last year and will this year. They are Vandy level bad. I don't know how we'll fair vs mid-tier teams like Miss Schools/A&M/Ark....I think we're on par with them right now.

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Cal is awful. We might have more people there than them. We'll destroy Cal. It's gonna be a super late travel home day. Luckily we have Samford the next week

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If we are losing or competing against cal we are in trouble. This coaching staff and individual talent should be more than enough to get in there, handle business/get out of there smoothly

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Cal is horrendous. They are a below average G5 team. We'll have more fans than them in the stadium and smoke them by 40.

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Cheers to putting them in their place on September 9th!

eastcoastcal said:

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Popped over to an Auburn fan forum and searched up mentions of "cal". Here are the most recent instances:

Quote:

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IMHO if he's just average this season we lose to every decent team we play except Cal

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The only thing I can see being an issue with that Cal game is the travel and time zone issues. It's going to be the equivalent of a 9:30 kickoff for Auburn. But that is it. By every other metric, Auburn should dominate Cal

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My gut says there is no way we lose to Cal

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the idea we'd lose to Cal is just stupid. We would have demolished them last year and will this year. They are Vandy level bad. I don't know how we'll fair vs mid-tier teams like Miss Schools/A&M/Ark....I think we're on par with them right now.

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Cal is awful. We might have more people there than them. We'll destroy Cal. It's gonna be a super late travel home day. Luckily we have Samford the next week

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If we are losing or competing against cal we are in trouble. This coaching staff and individual talent should be more than enough to get in there, handle business/get out of there smoothly

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Cal is horrendous. They are a below average G5 team. We'll have more fans than them in the stadium and smoke them by 40.

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Cheers to putting them in their place on September 9th!

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Sounds like a sandbag game for us. If Spav is the real deal again, they may be surprised by our offense. That's my Rose Bowl colored glasses talking.

sounds like Texas fans

in our second game vs texas in memorial I was sitting next to and near a lot of texas fans

in the fourth quarter one guy yelled out in exasperation…. I can't believe we're going to lose to ****g Cal two ****g years in a row!

They know they are in a bad spot and will be dreading this game.

That's just like their opinion, man.

They're not wrong

bipolarbear said:

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That's just like their opinion, man.

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ba, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Somehow we need to translate this internet fodder into motivation to get butts in the seats. I know there has been lots of talk about how inept our marketing dept is, but surely they can come up with some creative ways to get fans to this game, in particular.

Nothing beats the atmosphere of a full Memorial Stadium. How do we make that happen?

HoopDreams said:

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sounds like Texas fans

in our second game vs texas in memorial I was sitting next to and near a lot of texas fans

in the fourth quarter one guy yelled out in exasperation…. I can't believe we're going to lose to ****g Cal two ****g years in a row!

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Auburn fans are delusional. They run every HC they have out of town because of inflated expectations. They will have a nice roster, but IMO not an elite one. I will be beyond disappointed if the Bears do not play competitively against Auburn.

Auburn had a very nice portal class, but it will be interesting to see who plays QB for them. The favorite is Peyton Thorne the Michigan St transfer. He played at the same HS as Sam Jackson. Thorne is ok but far from elite. Cal should be good on defense and I expect a good game.

Not predicting a certain Cal win but I do think they should be very competitive at CMS against Auburn. It is not Alabama, Georgia or LSU coming to town.

Any comments about hippies in trees?

zorbarick said:

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Somehow we need to translate this internet fodder into motivation to get butts in the seats. I know there has been lots of talk about how inept our marketing dept is, but surely they can come up with some creative ways to get fans to this game, in particular.

Nothing beats the atmosphere of a full Memorial Stadium. How do we make that happen?

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Numero uno: Beat North Texas. Then the usual good ideas suggested here: Free or greatly reduced tickets for students, fill the end zones with free admission rickets for various youth groups and teams, attempt to attract disenfranchised Raider fans (do we have any big, scary looking players to promote for this purpose?) etc.

We really need this game to improve our national perception. Of course, beating UNC twice, Ole Miss twice, Texas twice, hasn't seemed to do anything.

We keep catching traditionally strong teams when they're struggling. Notre Dame was the biggest blown opportunity in a decade. Can't wait for this game, and again down there.

bipolarbear said:

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Then the usual good ideas suggested here: Free or greatly reduced tickets for students, fill the end zones with free admission rickets for various youth groups and teams, attempt to attract disenfranchised Raider fans (do we have any big, scary looking players to promote for this purpose?) etc.

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No way any of this is going to happen. We're talking about Cal, after all.

6956bear said:

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HoopDreams said:

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sounds like Texas fans

in our second game vs texas in memorial I was sitting next to and near a lot of texas fans

in the fourth quarter one guy yelled out in exasperation…. I can't believe we're going to lose to ****g Cal two ****g years in a row!

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Auburn fans are delusional. They run every HC they have out of town because of inflated expectations. They will have a nice roster, but IMO not an elite one. I will be beyond disappointed if the Bears do not play competitively against Auburn.

Auburn had a very nice portal class, but it will be interesting to see who plays QB for them. The favorite is Peyton Thorne the Michigan St transfer. He played at the same HS as Sam Jackson. Thorne is ok but far from elite. Cal should be good on defense and I expect a good game.

Not predicting a certain Cal win but I do think they should be very competitive at CMS against Auburn. It is not Alabama, Georgia or LSU coming to town.

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Auburn over optimism is worth 3 pts to us. Their strength has always been physical strength and toughness. But, speed kills in interconf play.

Rushinbear said:

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6956bear said:

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HoopDreams said:

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sounds like Texas fans

in our second game vs texas in memorial I was sitting next to and near a lot of texas fans

in the fourth quarter one guy yelled out in exasperation…. I can't believe we're going to lose to ****g Cal two ****g years in a row!

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Auburn fans are delusional. They run every HC they have out of town because of inflated expectations. They will have a nice roster, but IMO not an elite one. I will be beyond disappointed if the Bears do not play competitively against Auburn.

Auburn had a very nice portal class, but it will be interesting to see who plays QB for them. The favorite is Peyton Thorne the Michigan St transfer. He played at the same HS as Sam Jackson. Thorne is ok but far from elite. Cal should be good on defense and I expect a good game.

Not predicting a certain Cal win but I do think they should be very competitive at CMS against Auburn. It is not Alabama, Georgia or LSU coming to town.

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Auburn over optimism is worth 3 pts to us. Their strength has always been physical strength and toughness. But, speed kills in interconf play.

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Ole Miss was bigger, faster, and stronger than us at just about every position and we schooled them twice.

"We better not lose to those commies!"

A typical Southern message board post about playing Cal.

Golden One said:

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bipolarbear said:

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Then the usual good ideas suggested here: Free or greatly reduced tickets for students, fill the end zones with free admission rickets for various youth groups and teams, attempt to attract disenfranchised Raider fans (do we have any big, scary looking players to promote for this purpose?) etc.

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No way any of this is going to happen. We're talking about Cal, after all.

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Exactly. Stupid marketing department won't be using discounts to this game to fill the stands because they are thinking that maybe it will be a near sell-out at full price. ("Oh, it's the Auburn game!") Maybe we draw 40,000 like that.

Anyway, this is a winnable game for the Golden Bears. Let's do that and then see what the Auburn fans have to say!

MoragaBear said:

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The funniest thing about those posts is them thinking they'll have more fans at the game than Cal. They'll be outnumbered by 5-1 at a minimum but probably closer to 10-1.

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I wonder if Tim Cook will attend.

MoragaBear said:

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I asked Knowlton about free tickets for students at a recent event and he said they tried that earlier and by far had the lowest student attendance of any recent year when they tried it because there was less perceived value than being there for tickets you paid for. I don't think it's a very high price for students but don't know the numbers.

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"recent event" is pretty vague and if the event was anything besides basketball or football, the sample is completely irrelevant. Simply put, no other college sports can create the atmosphere of football and basketball. In fact, if the event was basketball this past season, I'd argue that was irrelevant too, because thanks to KnowFox, the perceived value of attending a game had become laughably low, regardless of the price to get in.

At the VERY LEAST, frosh should get into the non-conference games free. They have no sense of the "perceived value" because most of them have probably never attended one prior to coming to Cal. Hopefully, that hooks them and then you offer them an incredibly cheap ticket for the balance of the season.

MoragaBear said:

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I asked Knowlton about free tickets for students at a recent event and he said they tried that earlier and by far had the lowest student attendance of any recent year when they tried it because there was less perceived value than being there for tickets you paid for. I don't think it's a very high price for students but don't know the numbers.

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You can make the first non-conf home games free, then sell student tickets for a big discount if you attend any of the non-conf games. Lots of different ways to approach this, but his head is so far up his own ass that he's looking at polyps instead of creative solutions.

MoragaBear said:

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The recent event referenced was a donor event and I asked specifically about free tickets for students to Cal football and hoops and also about the breathalizer issue that was such a big problem impacting student attendance a few years back. Was told that's no longer a policy.

Just passing along what was asked and answered.

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For this game I propose giving season ticket holders one free kids ticket for each season ticket they hold.
Then Cal doesn't lose any sales of adult tickets. And current adult season ticket holders can bring their kids or neighborhood kids or any school kids they know.

Let's not kick a dead horse when its down....hey wait just a cotton-picking minute...that's not a horse...its....its....its a bear?

MoragaBear said:

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I asked Knowlton about free tickets for students at a recent event and he said they tried that earlier and by far had the lowest student attendance of any recent year when they tried it because there was less perceived value than being there for tickets you paid for. I don't think it's a very high price for students but don't know the numbers.

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oh ok, super glad you mentioned this: so here's why I think his answer isn't great- this is the same answer he gave me when I asked it back in the Fall (around October). I did some research and came across an article that states student section stopped being free in 2017- before Knowlton arrived.
https://www.dailycal.org/2017/08/16/cal-football-tickets-no-longer-free-first-year-students

Firstly, why are we applying the "perceived value" argument to Raiders fans/bay area folk, who right now have no idea what the value is because they haven't really been invited/incentivized to come to a game? There is an argument to be made that any "elasticity" that price changes elicit is misguided, since right now the "market" (bay area non-cal-alums) has no real reason to even consider going. The department has to at least get people to try Cal games by handing out free tickets to raiders groups and youth football teams, etc!! Perceived value doesn't make sense here imo.

As for the actual student tickets, I am sad that the response to student attendance being low was to raise prices to create a perceptual value, rather than introspectively wondering how their marketing and outreach efforts might have failed...

MoragaBear said:

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Maybe the info about the supposed attendance drop when student tickets were free was passed on to him or maybe it's a deflection. I don't know. I do know student attendance these past couple seasons was much better than it had been for a while, though I don't know exactly what years the biggest dips were in. I also asked about what efforts were being made for student outreach and noted that when they packed out Haas for the Stanford hoops game in '22 when they had a DJ at halftime that it might be an example of what needs to be replicated.

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Was that the game with that dude P-lo? I didn't know him beforehand but apparently he's a popular bay area rapper. That was an awesome game. I think people have mentioned the possibility of making food trucks outside Haas a more consistent thing but no idea if that violates some contract we have. Honestly, I think for football game days it starts with getting the frats/sororities out of the parties and into the stadium. Way too many stay at the houses. No idea how to fix tho

And this all probably gets largely helped if we just win. I remember my first game was the night game against Nevada. I don't know how the student section looked from around the stadium, but I felt like it was packed and electric. After we marched down the field at the beginning of the game I was so excited. Then of course we Cal'd it and the attendance wasn't the same in the ensuing games. I remember walking out of the student section and one of the seniors loudly said "The freshmen got a quick introduction to being a cal fan eh". Well wasn't he on the money...

If we can beat Auburn and start out 3-0, I think that gets a lot of folks to come to Memorial. Ahhhh I wish I could time travel to the fall I want gamedays!!!

Last five seasons of Auburn football
8-5
9-4
6-5
6-7
5-7

Half a$$ed program, should be an even match

reading this thread is just another reminder that knowlton is absolutely full of ****, he never offered free tixs to students for football & basketball games

the con artist is merely repeating what his confidante jenny tole him, neither one of them prioritizes revenue sports & their future terminations cannot happen soon enough

it is mind boggling that the bearinsider.com has never written an article re: the con artist or conducted an interview with him but continues to greet & meet with him at private donor events

bipolarbear said:

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zorbarick said:

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Somehow we need to translate this internet fodder into motivation to get butts in the seats. I know there has been lots of talk about how inept our marketing dept is, but surely they can come up with some creative ways to get fans to this game, in particular.

Nothing beats the atmosphere of a full Memorial Stadium. How do we make that happen?

---

Numero uno: Beat North Texas. Then the usual good ideas suggested here: Free or greatly reduced tickets for students, fill the end zones with free admission rickets for various youth groups and teams, attempt to attract disenfranchised Raider fans (do we have any big, scary looking players to promote for this purpose?) etc.

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Last year we had that one portal player with the crazy eyes who looked like he had done 2 tours in Afghanistan who would have been good but I think he has departed.

MoragaBear said:

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I asked Knowlton about free tickets for students at a recent event and he said they tried that earlier and by far had the lowest student attendance of any recent year when they tried it because there was less perceived value than being there for tickets you paid for. I don't think it's a very high price for students but don't know the numbers.

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Both BI and student groups should press Knowlton for a copy of the study he commissioned to reach this conclusion. There is no legitimate way to reach it without some sort of polling, focus group, or similar approach. Aside from the fact that we know he's lying about giving free tickets during his tenure, which precludes any possible real-world analysis, he has no way to know how actual students feel about it unless he solicits their opinions in some statistically meaningful way.

Many years ago and long before Knowlton arrived when Tedford was here Cal did give free tickets to ONE OOC game per year matching the number of seats we purchased. This was pre-ESP IIRC and was always for the worst home opponent. I used to give them away at work, and they were always used. Nobody ever told me they'd much rather just buy their own ticket.

I'm also curious about what Cal marketing is doing to attract the casual football fan - or the Raider fans - to games. Personally, I would love to see more attractive (read affordable) family four pack packages. And not just blue/gold endzone tix. I would love to see a family section in the corners on the west side (near restrooms and the concessions on the concourse - crucial for those of us with kids). My new favorite sections are II, J, and D.