seems that some of the problems highlighted here for Michigan apply to Cal and the rest of college football:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/road-saturday/201406/college-football-fan-stadium-students-business-tv-ncaa-michigan-tickets

Gordon Gekko says no

Old story.

I am curious about the future, because the present system is dead.

yes

Money is increasingly taking over college football, and totally changing and ruining it.

Bring on soccer and rugby.

NFL also

SonOfCalVa;842327760 said:

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Money is increasingly taking over college football, and totally changing and ruining it.

Bring on soccer and rugby.

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if growth continues as it has, we may be fighting for tickets to see soccer games at CMS in the not-too-near future. might even be what allows us to make those final loan payments.

Humans are destroying everything. College football included.

There's always HS football. $5 ticket, $1 popcorn, $1 drink, lots of spirit de corps and unselfish play, super supportive fans, kids wearing their hearts on their sleeves...awesome stuff.

Great article and there is something here that resonates with me. Sub California for Michigan and it captures what I feel.

"Michigan football fans don't just love football. They love Michigan football -- the history, the traditions, the rituals -- the timeless elements that have grown organically over decades. They are attracted to the belief that Michigan football is based on ideals that go beyond the field, do not fade with time, and are passed down to the next generation -- the very qualities that separate a game at the Big House from the Super Bowl."

More people watch college football now than ever but that wont stop some old dude from saying things were better back in the day

the main difference that i see between us and michigan is that michigan i think screwed up in trying to maximize revenue whereas we're trying to maximize revenue because we literally have no choice in order to support our athletic department budget and pay for stadium upgrades. ours corporate sellout on naming rights and commercial time i dont believe is greed related as it is just a necessity at this point. ill definetely start to raise my eyebrows though if we start having sponsorship signs on sproul behind the band as they play their pregame performance or if they change the name of the big game bonfire to big game bonfire by odwalla.

i think our traditions are mostly intact. The Cal experience for most of my life has been mostly about the pregame rituals, mostly due to the poor product that has been on the field most of my life

Football is down, not just attendance. Pop Warner is losing at a rate of 15% per year. High schools are limiting participation. The health concerns are real. Soon, the pool of potential college players is going to get very thin. Maybe we should be preparing for the post-football sports world.

SoCalTownie expresses my overall feelings on this thread. I will add more later.......

socaltownie;842327788 said:

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Great article and there is something here that resonates with me. Sub California for Michigan and it captures what I feel.

"Michigan football fans don't just love football. They love Michigan football -- the history, the traditions, the rituals -- the timeless elements that have grown organically over decades. They are attracted to the belief that Michigan football is based on ideals that go beyond the field, do not fade with time, and are passed down to the next generation -- the very qualities that separate a game at the Big House from the Super Bowl."

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Another passage resonated with me as a Cal fan:

Quote:

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If the people running college football see their universities as just a brand, and the athletic departments merely a business, they will turn off the very people who've been coming to their temples for decades. Athletic directors need to remember the people in the stands are not customers. They're believers. Break faith with your flock, and you will not get them back with fancier wine.

If you treat your fans like customers long enough, eventually they'll start behaving that way, reducing their irrational love for their team to a cool-headed, dollars-and-cents decision to buy tickets or not, with no more emotional investment than deciding whether to go to the movies or buy new tires.

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bearchamp;842327859 said:

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Football is down, not just attendance. Pop Warner is losing at a rate of 15% per year. High schools are limiting participation. The health concerns are real. Soon, the pool of potential college players is going to get very thin. Maybe we should be preparing for the post-football sports world.

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Football is expensive.
High schools are having to choose between buying books/computers or equipment for junior varsity/sophomore teams, as well as varsity teams.

Soccer is not expensive and requires much more athleticism, not to mention conditioning. Injuries are much less common and less severe.
I'm becoming a soccer fan, where smaller players can do well, and teams can be assembled to match the skill levels.
t'hell with the NCAA and NFL which feed themselves royally.

Earlier today I made a short post in which I indicated I had more to add.

Here are some additional thoughts:

Bacon writes: " Michigan is all about lifelong fans who've been coming together for decades to leave a bit of the modern world behind -- and the incessant marketing that comes with it -- and share an authentic experience fueled by the passion of the team, the band and the students. That's it."

Again, just substitute "Cal" for "Michigan". Great summarizing statement here.

Bacon adds: "When the late Michigan broadcaster Bob Ufer said, "Michigan football is a religion, and Saturday is the holy day of obligation," he was on to something. If the people running college football see their universities as just a brand, and the athletic departments merely a business, they will turn off the very people who've been coming to their temples for decades. Athletic directors need to remember the people in the stands are not customers. They're believers. Break faith with your flock, and you will not get them back with fancier wine."

......"After a friend of mine took his kids to a game, he told me, "Michigan athletics used to feel like something we shared. Now it's something they hoard."

I had planned to add several statements to the thread, but as I read and re-read the article, I think Bacon hit on my points better than I could.

Bacon is, by no means, alone in his thoughts (as has been illustrated several times on various other threads here on BearInsider). Something has to happen.....either Cal will decide the athletic experience will be "Cal" instead of the NFL/NBA JV, or it will go the other way.

Every year, (at least since the exit from the original CMS) the internal debate about whether or not to renew football season tickets has taken me longer to
decide. As the traditional Cal football experience erodes and gets replaced with promos, commercials, rock music, and the copy-cat Miami Hurricane entrance, I say to myself if it weren't for Cal Band, I could stay home and watch the game at far less expense than driving up from SoCal. For now, I'm still in. This year, I will see if the AD has removed some of the plasticity (cited above) that has replaced the traditional Cal game day experience. After the season, the internal debate will begin once again...........

I'm with you TomBear. It took me a real long time to decide whether to renew my season tickets this year (I eventually did)

bearchamp;842327859 said:

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Football is down, not just attendance. Pop Warner is losing at a rate of 15% per year. High schools are limiting participation. The health concerns are real. Soon, the pool of potential college players is going to get very thin. Maybe we should be preparing for the post-football sports world.

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"Very thin" is something I would debate. What I would say is that it will be interesting to see how millenials relate to football as they age given that many (most?) will not have played the game at all.

BTW - as a youth coach I see it daily. Lots of kids would be great on our team but parents say no, nada, zilch.

BTW #2 - what will be interesting to see is if flag football rises in popularity. Parents MUCH prefer it (though honestly at the youth level I am not sure it is safer - no padding, no helmet, and a game that still involves running and trying to stop your opponent from running furhter.

CalZebra2012;842327782 said:

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There's always HS football. $5 ticket, $1 popcorn, $1 drink, lots of spirit de corps and unselfish play, super supportive fans, kids wearing their hearts on their sleeves...awesome stuff.

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Their next! Look soon for $6.00 tickets and $1.50 popcorn & drinks.

Yes

I think it's pretty simple: if advertisers pay more than fans in the stands you cater to the advertisers. Money is the overriding factor. If the product starts to deteriorate so much that advertisers stop paying then you go back to building the game day, collegiate experience to attract fans. There's a bit of a balancing act, you don't want a bunch of advertising but no fans in the stands, but not much. The dollar is king.

One thing re Michigan vs Cal. They are rolling in money. They absolutely have no excuse for alienating fans for more money. Same with say Texas or a number of others. What does that extra revenue do? They can only spend so much on football (legally)... then it trickles down to administrators and non-rev sports, with maybe a small return to the campus academic coffers.

If Michigan's' stands are not full of students and they are charging $295 for season tickets, that's crazy. Lower the price. Get the future customers hooked. Everyone can claim demographics are different, but that just means there will be a future problem with football revenue. Michigan going from tradition to make a few more dollars is insane. Short sided.

Now is the same true at Cal? I think the same line of thinking is good, don't ruin it for the fans. But our financial situation is different. But we do really need people asking whether XXX dollars is worth it if it indeed makes the fan experience worse. Maybe in some cases, we sell out more than Michigan. 'Kabam Field' for instance is a mouthful when combined with 'at California Memorial Stadium' - but does it make your day @ a game any worse? Not really and we get $$$. Now some stupid minitron promo with the hampster dance song or whatever? Just sad. I would really like to know how much they make off of promos like that. It cannot be that much (a mean are we talking $5k? $10k?). Really not worth it if it means playing over the band.

Cal really needs to avoid being short sided - the stadium payments last 40 years. We need paying fans for 40 years. And that makes it even worse when 500 students show up. That's a lot of lost customers.

This article really resonated with because the gameday experience was the final selling point in my decision to go to Cal. As a kid, I grew up in the South Bay and went to Stanfurd football games fairly regularly because of the proximity. My grandfather, aunt, and uncle were all Cal alums but I had never attended a game at CMS until the year I was applying to colleges.

At the game, I was surprised with how many fans there were compared to the Stanfurd games I had been too. Also most the people that I saw were engaged with the game, participating in the chants, and clapping along with the band. The whole experience, from walking up through Greek Row, to looking out over the Bay, the people on Tightwad Hill, card stunts, and the victory cannon sold me that this was the place for me. It was the best college football atmosphere that I had been too.

The quote that the author writes about people not loving football, but Michigan football is the best way to sum up the current situation. To me going to a college football game is a way to travel back it time. When I am an old alumnus I want to be able to go to a Cal game and instantly hear the band play and the students chant and be transported back in time.

In the Michigan-Ohio State HBO documentary, fans talk about how there is something eternal to the rivalry because they always meet on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. To me that is what college football is all about. When you go to a game you know that your grandparents experienced something similar. And eventually, your grandchildren will go to a game and get that same experience. It may sound weird but when I go to a professional sporting event I feel like I am just at an event. That is not what college football should strive to be because it has it own unique place in American culture and if they do try to make CFB an event, they won't be able to compete with the NFL.

College football fans don't care about that. Their deep abiding love is with their school and its band, traditions, etc.. If ADs forget about that then their fans will leave. I know that if the Cal gameday experience continues on this trajectory I will not go anymore. If the atmospheres are similar I would much rather go to a 49ers game.

agree and thanks for posting


if it wasn't for Cal sports, I would rarely be on campus, or go to Berkeley, and I'm only an hour away

I love the university, and Cal sports is the best way to live that connection

I only watch Cal sports (I don't watch any pro sports, besides the occasional games I'll go to when offered). I would actually rather watch a Cal women's basketball game, a Cal soccer game, or a Cal swim meet than any pro sport or even a college football or basketball game no involving Cal

for me Cal is personal

btsktr;842329865 said:

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This article really resonated with because the gameday experience was the final selling point in my decision to go to Cal. As a kid, I grew up in the South Bay and went to Stanfurd football games fairly regularly because of the proximity. My grandfather, aunt, and uncle were all Cal alums but I had never attended a game at CMS until the year I was applying to colleges.

At the game, I was surprised with how many fans there were compared to the Stanfurd games I had been too. Also most the people that I saw were engaged with the game, participating in the chants, and clapping along with the band. The whole experience, from walking up through Greek Row, to looking out over the Bay, the people on Tightwad Hill, card stunts, and the victory cannon sold me that this was the place for me. It was the best college football atmosphere that I had been too.

The quote that the author writes about people not loving football, but Michigan football is the best way to sum up the current situation. To me going to a college football game is a way to travel back it time. When I am an old alumnus I want to be able to go to a Cal game and instantly hear the band play and the students chant and be transported back in time.

In the Michigan-Ohio State HBO documentary, fans talk about how there is something eternal to the rivalry because they always meet on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. To me that is what college football is all about. When you go to a game you know that your grandparents experienced something similar. And eventually, your grandchildren will go to a game and get that same experience. It may sound weird but when I go to a professional sporting event I feel like I am just at an event. That is not what college football should strive to be because it has it own unique place in American culture and if they do try to make CFB an event, they won't be able to compete with the NFL.

College football fans don't care about that. Their deep abiding love is with their school and its band, traditions, etc.. If ADs forget about that then their fans will leave. I know that if the Cal gameday experience continues on this trajectory I will not go anymore. If the atmospheres are similar I would much rather go to a 49ers game.

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