We got to the stadium 30 minutes before kickoff but didn't get to our seats until 7:00 in the 1st Quarter due to the enormous rivers of human beings which flowed painfully slowly through the gates with practically no organization or structure being imposed by Cal's workers beyond the confines of the security gates.
There were two lines at Gate 5, a narrow one which stretched to Gate 6 (which had an equally long line that went down Canyon Road to Panoramic Way) and a colossal one which went all the way down the steps to Piedmont Ave with a side stream cutting midway into that line from Warring Street through a dirt path. It was infuriating to wait in the line from Piedmont and see people leaking ahead of you through the side stream.
We probably would have missed the entire first quarter (at least) had they not suddenly made the interesting decision to void the security checks at Gate 5 and simply let everyone proceed straight to the ticket takers. I think the security value of these security checks is questionable to begin with but it was also questionable whether this solution was responsible, though at the time I was relieved just to get into the stadium.
They needed to hire a lot more security and ushers for this game and expand the space of the security area to accommodate many more simultaneous security checks. If this is not sufficient they needed to open more gates to the general public. Stanford Stadium has 15 ticket gates; we have 9 with some only accessible for special persons. Through their incompetence the athletic department cheated thousands of fans out of part of the value of their ticket.
There were two lines at Gate 5, a narrow one which stretched to Gate 6 (which had an equally long line that went down Canyon Road to Panoramic Way) and a colossal one which went all the way down the steps to Piedmont Ave with a side stream cutting midway into that line from Warring Street through a dirt path. It was infuriating to wait in the line from Piedmont and see people leaking ahead of you through the side stream.
We probably would have missed the entire first quarter (at least) had they not suddenly made the interesting decision to void the security checks at Gate 5 and simply let everyone proceed straight to the ticket takers. I think the security value of these security checks is questionable to begin with but it was also questionable whether this solution was responsible, though at the time I was relieved just to get into the stadium.
They needed to hire a lot more security and ushers for this game and expand the space of the security area to accommodate many more simultaneous security checks. If this is not sufficient they needed to open more gates to the general public. Stanford Stadium has 15 ticket gates; we have 9 with some only accessible for special persons. Through their incompetence the athletic department cheated thousands of fans out of part of the value of their ticket.