kadl;842198661 said:
Hey CAL Football Community,
During the Cal vs. Washington State football we decided to test out a new segment which involved members of Section TT singing and dancing to the tune of "I'm a Believer"during the 3rd and 4th Quarter.
I would appreciate if everyone who heard, participated, or knew of the segment please give me some feedback on what worked, what didn't work, and possible improvements. Also, do you feel like it engaged those who weren't really interested in college football by creating a fun experience with friends and family?
Tell me what you think?
Thank you!
At the risk of looking foolish, I’m going to assume you are for real.
I’m sorry you have gotten rude responses, but you have to realize that the segment you are describing is a perfect example of how tone deaf the athletic department has become to its fan base. We want our Cal games back. Every time you see something at a Giants game, or A’s game, or 49ers game or Raiders game, and think “we should do that at Cal”, stop. Just stop. No more cheesy ads. No more stupid fan segments. We don’t want them. We all grew up with a particular Cal experience at football games. Now it is a homogenized shopping mall of a game that could be any two-bit sporting event anywhere except that the players happen to have a Cal logo on their helmet. The athletic department took advantage of a winning program to squeeze every last dollar out of the fan and every last advertisement they could find, and have drained the experience of any college tradition or Cal tradition. I don’t think anyone there even knows anything about what the game experience used to be like anymore. I know many people who had been going to games for decades who stopped going WHILE WE WERE WINNING.
Are you guys aware that through years of losing, you had a loyal group of fans that used to say “I come for the band”. Some were joking. Some weren’t. The band was an integral part of the experience and they have been shunted aside. Many people are upset by this. You want to do a promotion. Do a “Free the Band!” promotion. Get Acme Lumber and Siding to pay for some good will by sponsoring the band for a quarter, so they get an announcement, the band gets to play. Also, it used to be a big deal to a lot of people to go to the pre-game band concert at Sproul, march up with the band, hang out after the game and listen to the post-game band concert (sometimes after a special victory a football player would conduct the band in victory), go through the tunnel with the band, down to Bowles Hall where they played, and march with them down Bancroft. You should have the band front and center in your marketing instead of treating it like a nuisance.
Get in your way back machine and go to 19990, 1980, 1970, and look at what the game experience was like. That is what we want. We are Cal people who go to games to relive our college experience and share it with our families. We are irreverent, and our crowds often make their own entertainment. We want the band to play. We want to do cheers. Let the band play. Get some mic men who know what they are doing to roam around to different sections doing Cal cheers. Better yet, see if you can get some of our past mic-men who alumni might recognize to come back and do their thing. Maybe do some of their cheers from their era. Challenge the alumni to show the students how it is done.
Overall, do as little as possible, but when you do things, DO CAL THINGS. Seriously, I don't think anyone there has any idea about any historical Cal football history. (Let me ask, does C-A-L Aroo-ra-roo-ra-rah! mean anything to you? I'll give you a clue to make it obvious C-A-L, Who ya rootin' for?!) You need to know these things to market to a Cal crowd.
Some ideas:
1. Cal used to have a family section in the endzone. You got a season ticket that allowed 2 adults and 3 kids into all the games, except for Stanford which you could opt to buy for full price. First of all, it brought young families to games at a reasonable price (for instance, see your promotion for the Oregon State Game. $99 for four is a reasonable price for a family of four. It is certainly better than $260 per game). My family never would have gone to games at the price you normally charge now. It also made one section a family/kids oriented zone. You created a lot of Cal fans in that section. It was massively short sighted when Barbour decided she could get more money for those seats and eliminated that section. Well, now you ain’t going to sell out the stadium for a long time. Time to start trying to build that relationship back. Bring back the family section. Season ticket cost of $100 bucks a game for 2 adults and 2 kids. And think about it. If you won’t be convinced to stop the cheesy promotions, you now have a section of parents and kids where you can target ads. (hope you don’t)
2. The guy blungld on this thread. He is one half of the duo that used to do the Bear Territory show. (sort of a demi-god in the Cal pantheon) That show holds a lot of fond memories for Cal fans. Does anyone in the athletic department know that show? If you are going to do segments, maybe do Bear Territory style segments. Maybe Chris and/or Steve might help, or even do a segment on occasion if you asked. (Don’t know). But this is the kind of thing to be looking at.
3. Cal used to let people down on the field after the games to listen to the band and leave through the tunnel. Kids played football on the real football field. Wasn’t a huge crowd, but it created a homey atmosphere. Stop being paranoid about the field, spend a little to clean it up and let people do something like this again.
4. Find out little things from Cal fans that they remember fondly. Like, you guys used to sell Carnation Malts with paper pull tops. For years kids would get their malts, pull the tops, and fling them on the field so that the area behind the endzone would littered with Carnation tops at the end of the game. Stupid little thing, but a stupid little CAL thing. The Cal rooting section used to launch water balloons and throw fruit at opposing bands, especially Stanford, USC, and UCLA. I know that is never going to be allowed again and I’m not asking it to be. But if you are going to have stupid segments, build them around these types of memories. Use your segments to remind people why they loved going to Cal games, not to remind them why they would rather stay home and watch it on TV.
If you have an idea that has nothing to do with Cal or Cal history, stop. My big idea for next year would be to acknowledge to yourselves that the football team is not good right now and to get the crowd that used to come despite losing back. Market “remember when Cal football was fun? Unique? Irreverent?” The band. The Play. Shots of old Cal crowds with sixties clothes and hair. Go retro. We have always been a retro fan base. Market to families. Remind today’s parents about what was special about games when they were kids.
We are not a pro sports fanbase. If we are, you are screwed because all we would care about is the product on the field, and that is not good right now. Seriously, the Barbour era has drained the fun out of Cal football. She needs to make amends and bring it back. Stop trying to be the Giants. Stop trying to be Oregon. Stop trying to be cutting edge (we aren't, and you hopelessly are not and look ridiculous when you try) Be Cal.
