On the Bear Insider front page today there is a picture of the team gathering at midfield during fall camp and I see the tarps are back for 2024. I love the classic simplicity and beauty of Memorial Stadium, so these tarps detract from the stadium's aesthetic for me.

My question is, do people actually like the tarped off section and the platform that's been added?

No. They're embarrassing as hell and a lazy assed attempt to mask the fact that we can't sell out the stadium every week, and the same morons who think the tarps are a good idea are the same morons who put us into position to "need" those tarps in the first place. The new chancellor needs to get rid of the AD, the marketing department, and the tarps, all at once.

the curse of the con artist & markeisha

tarp expansion program at haas & memorial stadium#

Do I like them? No.
Do I understand them? Yes.

It is better to have the tarps rather than tons of photos showing empty stands that the Big 12 schools would spam all over the internet in an attempt to denigrate Cal football.

^ sloth, it would be better if the cal athletic department had innovative marketing professionals who would give out FREE tixs to all students & sell tens of thousand more tixs in a market space that has recently seen the departure of multiple sports teams

if chancellor lyons goes along with the status quo as the bears fanbase continues to die off without replacement fans, his pipeline to future donors/builders of berkeley is gonna be ******* zero

and at that point rich's legacy is gonna be the chancellor that lost berkeley's ranking as the #1 public university in the world

tarp management is for lazy azz bureaucratic losers#

I dislike both the tarps and the giant deck

Shocky1 said:

---

^ sloth, it would be better if the cal athletic department had innovative marketing professionals who would give out FREE tixs to all students & sell tens of thousand more tixs in a market space that has recently seen the departure of multiple sports teams

if chancellor lyons goes along with the status quo as the bears fanbase continues to die off without replacement fans, his pipeline to future donors/builders of berkeley is gonna be ******* zero

tarp management is for lazy azz bureaucratic losers#

---

I agree, the Cal athletic department's complete and utter failure to price their product appropriately is a failure of epic proportions

The logic of raising ticket prices as ticket sales plummet is beyond comprehension.

We could have the largest student section in the nation. It would cost us nothing and would end up bringing in millions over the years. Instead we market out of our rear ends, spend thousands every year on tarps, and get nothing in return.

I would rather see it be a large GA section where kids get in free with a paid adult ticket, ticket giveaways to East Bay high school students (maybe a reward for those who maintain a 3.0 gpa or above?), some kind of promotion with BART. Not only free tickets for Cal students, but students of Berkeley City College, Laney, SFCC, Contra Costa CC, Charity, Cal State East Bay, SF State, USF, St. Mary's…..basically present a college ID at the ticket office and get a free ticket.

The tarps remind me of when the Raiders were having blackout issues, so they tarped off Mt. Davis

I hate the fact that the tarps are there. It would be great to have a good enough program/product to force out the tarps. CMS is quite the place when full.

I am puzzled as to why CAL does not offer those tarped seats at bargain prices. Would your rather have 100% of nothing or a percentage of something.

Sonofoski said:

---

I am puzzled as to why CAL does not offer those tarped seats at bargain prices. Would your rather have 100% of nothing or a percentage of something.

---

You're talking about common sense, something the AD clearly does not have.

kal kommie said:

---

I dislike both the tarps and the giant deck

---

I completely agree. I hate both also. We should offer free tickets to all high school and college kids and place them in that section. That would provide more bodies to cheer on our Bears. The tarps make zero crowd noise.

Golden One said:

---

kal kommie said:

---

I dislike both the tarps and the giant deck

---

I completely agree. I hate both also. We should offer free tickets to all high school and college kids and place them in that section. That would provide more bodies to cheer on our Bears. The tarps make zero crowd noise.

---

I got my start as a Cal fan at 10 years old buying the cheap end zone tickets for kids. I usually sat right where the tarp is now. I'm fully convinced that giving away free tickets to kids will build the fan base of tomorrow.

it's just too big a stadium for the amount of fans. i know it lost capacity in the renovations but maybe they should have reduced it even further. ditch the benches and put in real seats throughout. they'd take up way more space.

i preferred the tarps from the Tedford era that were spaced out, blocking out several sections together in the endzones is way more conspicuous.

falseintellect said:

---

it's just too big a stadium for the amount of fans. i know it lost capacity in the renovations but maybe they should have reduced it even further. ditch the benches and put in real seats throughout. they'd take up way more space.

i preferred the tarps from the Tedford era that were spaced out, blocking out several sections together in the endzones is way more conspicuous.

---

There are several reasons why we can't fill Memorial, but "too many seats" is not, and has never been, one of them, imo. With a dearth of competition now among Bay Area sports, it's even easier to fill.

bearsandgiants said:

---

falseintellect said:

---

it's just too big a stadium for the amount of fans. i know it lost capacity in the renovations but maybe they should have reduced it even further. ditch the benches and put in real seats throughout. they'd take up way more space.

i preferred the tarps from the Tedford era that were spaced out, blocking out several sections together in the endzones is way more conspicuous.

---

There are several reasons why we can't fill Memorial, but "too many seats" is not, and has never been, one of them, imo. With a dearth of competition now among Bay Area sports, it's even easier to fill.

---

100% The relentless push for lowering of expectations and defending the current mismanagement is frustrating.

Golden One said:

---

kal kommie said:

---

I dislike both the tarps and the giant deck

---

I completely agree. I hate both also. We should offer free tickets to all high school and college kids and place them in that section. That would provide more bodies to cheer on our Bears. The tarps make zero crowd noise.

---

It looks like ****

calumnus said:

---

I would rather see it be a large GA section where kids get in free with a paid adult ticket, ticket giveaways to East Bay high school students (maybe a reward for those who maintain a 3.0 gpa or above?), some kind of promotion with BART. Not only free tickets for Cal students, but students of Berkeley City College, Laney, SFCC, Contra Costa CC, Charity, Cal State East Bay, SF State, USF, St. Mary's…..basically present a college ID at the ticket office and get a free ticket.

---

I totally agree. I have been advocating special pricing approaches for years since the demise of the Family Tickets
1. Family pricing on the North and South ends of CMS (remember the old Blue Zone and Gold Zone. Two adults and 3 kids or seniors. This automatically filled up the North and South ends.

2. Dollar tix for kids up to 16.

3. Free tix for middle school and elementary school kids who finished reading programs for all games except certain games that would be top sellers.

4. Every season ticket holder gets to select 1 or 2 free kid ticket(s) for all games excluding certain top sellers.

5. You could even set up special pricing options for official or unofficial living groups The more that sign up the lower the price for season tix.

There are a multitude of variations on these possibilities

A much smaller tarp under the end zone platform would be ok as it would look like it's related to the platform (I doubt anyone would want to sit directly below or next to the platform

The problem is the tarp is way to big for that purpose

I also think the platform looks meh… not much appeal sitting there with basically just some portable tables and umbrellas

golden sloth said:

---

Do I like them? No.
Do I understand them? Yes.

It is better to have the tarps rather than tons of photos showing empty stands that the Big 12 schools would spam all over the internet in an attempt to denigrate Cal football.

---

Wait until they see a UCLA home game against anyone who is not USC.

Back in my youth, the oaks had the knothole gang, but the admin is just too sophisticated to do somdthing like that

Whatever method is used to get students, especially high school students, into Memorial for free would be beneficial to Cal. One would be to develop an affinity to Cal and Cal sports which has a better chance of occurring than not offering the freebee. I bet there are clearciut examples that could be found that Cal football players got introducted into Cal football by going to at least one Cal football game for free.

bearsandgiants said:

---

falseintellect said:

---

it's just too big a stadium for the amount of fans. i know it lost capacity in the renovations but maybe they should have reduced it even further. ditch the benches and put in real seats throughout. they'd take up way more space.

i preferred the tarps from the Tedford era that were spaced out, blocking out several sections together in the endzones is way more conspicuous.

---

There are several reasons why we can't fill Memorial, but "too many seats" is not, and has never been, one of them, imo. With a dearth of competition now among Bay Area sports, it's even easier to fill.

---

You live in fantasy land. Attendance has been a struggle for my entire lifetime, so even if you're right- and the capacity isn't the problem, whatever IS the problem is not going to be fixed.

Even in the peak of Tedford years, the most successful this team will probably be on the field for the rest of any of our lifetimes, we still had tarps. If it couldn't consistently fill up then, what hope do we have now?

falseintellect said:

---

bearsandgiants said:

---

falseintellect said:

---

it's just too big a stadium for the amount of fans. i know it lost capacity in the renovations but maybe they should have reduced it even further. ditch the benches and put in real seats throughout. they'd take up way more space.

i preferred the tarps from the Tedford era that were spaced out, blocking out several sections together in the endzones is way more conspicuous.

---

There are several reasons why we can't fill Memorial, but "too many seats" is not, and has never been, one of them, imo. With a dearth of competition now among Bay Area sports, it's even easier to fill.

---

You live in fantasy land. Attendance has been a struggle for my entire lifetime, so even if you're right- and the capacity isn't the problem, whatever IS the problem is not going to be fixed.

Even in the peak of Tedford years, the most successful this team will probably be on the field for the rest of any of our lifetimes, we still had tarps. If it couldn't consistently fill up then, what hope do we have now?

---

Tarps are not attendance. They do not generate money. They do not plant the seeds for future attendance and revenue. They only make marketers who are bad at their jobs feel better about the poor job they are doing with rationalizations like yours.

With the Raiders, Warriors and A's no longer in the East Bay and the Niners in Santa Clara, there is now a huge opportunity for Cal to grow its fan base in the broader East and North Bay market. However, it will require a different mindset in the future than that of the bureaucrats that have gotten us into this problem in the first place. There are some good ideas on this thread. Hopefully we fire Knowlton, clear house and bring in experts in sports marketing and business. Wilcox fielding an exciting, winning team, or replacing him with someone who can, would help, but right now the Bay Area should be aware of Jaydn Ott and they are not.

This dang thread is bringing me out of flippin BI retirement.

Tarps look better than empty seats: Well, duh, yeah.

Do you want the tarps: NO!

Give tickets out to students, local schools, charities, literally ANYONE that can pay the great experience forward. Just like Shock said at the start. Pay forward.

Come on, dudes. This tarp stuff is exactly the short sighted poor decision making plaguing us that hinders our future growth many of us consistently lament on this board.

Go Bears!!!!

I'm pleased to see that the tarps and the "Bear Territory" platform are not the preference of most Cal fans, at least the diehards on this site.

Like many others, I don't see why Cal Athletics can't find some way to make endzone seating more palatable. With no pro teams left in Oakland after September 26, 2024, there has to be a way to pull in local interest from the East Bay and the Contra Costa folks. But even if the south end seats are mainly empty, Memorial still looks so gorgeous without the tarp/platform eyesore interrupting the flow of the bowl. Our school is fortunate enough to have one of the prettiest and most classic looking bowls in all of college football, and what does our athletic department do? They install stuff that detracts from the beauty and flow of the place. It makes no sense.

Finally, we all know that the real push for removing the tarps/platform will be the performance of the team. Wilcox and the coaching staff have got to find a way to consistently win 8 games per season. Tedford showed what Memorial can be when you give fans a product to be excited about. Snyder did too, although the rebound in attendance took longer with Snyder and didn't peak until '91 before Bockrath (spit) ran him out of town.