Tickets arrived in today's mail - not very pleased as we're low (row 7) in section C141 (around the 20 yardline). Since Cal only has approximately 2,500 ESP seats that have been sold, it seems like we should've received better seating. While assigned parking is in green lot 1 which allows tailgating, it says that no glass containers are allowed -suppose that means wine bottles which is what we mostly consume. I hope we don't make a habit of playing an occasional game at Levi Stadium!

"I hope we don't make a habit of playing an occasional game at Levi Stadium!"

Figure every other year until the chancellor and university find a way to deal with the mandatory Thursday or Friday night game every team has to host every two years.

There is no parking on campus until after 5 pm, so no parking for anybody with assigned game day parking on campus. Until they figure out that classes have to be cancelled on those unique games nights (again, mandated by the league), I think you'll see us playing elswhere, like at Levi's or maybe at O.co after the A's baseball season is officially over, meaning late Ocober or November. It is one game every two years. It is what it is; a league contractual obligation that all schools have to host a Thursday or Friday night game every other year. Cal was lucky this year in the fact the 49ers actually paid nicely for a Cal game in their opening year of operation there. Good luck with that in two years.
Last year, WSU cancelled school on their weeknight game. I doubt Cal ever does that...

DrDanger;842370024 said:

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"I hope we don't make a habit of playing an occasional game at Levi Stadium!"

Figure every other year until the chancellor and university find a way to deal with the mandatory Thursday or Friday night game every team has to host every two years.

There is no parking on campus until after 5 pm, so no parking for anybody with assigned game day parking on campus. Until they figure out that classes have to be cancelled on those unique games nights (again, mandated by the league), I think you'll see us playing elswhere, like at Levi's or maybe at O.co after the A's baseball season is officially over, meaning late Ocober or November. It is one game every two years. It is what it is; a league contractual obligation that all schools have to host a Thursday or Friday night game every other year. Cal was lucky this year in the fact the 49ers actually paid nicely for a Cal game in their opening year of operation there. Good luck with that in two years.
Last year, WSU cancelled school on their weeknight game. I doubt Cal ever does that...

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If there's a will, there's a way.

The easiest way is to structure the academic calendar to allow for declaring an academic holiday. For instance, Instruction began on Thursday, August 28. The calendar could have been adjusted:
(1) to begin Instruction on Wednesday, August 27 or
(2) hold classes on Labor Day (Mon., September 1)

That way, Friday, October 24 could have been declared an Academic and Administrative Holiday and no one would have been "inconvenienced". The same number of days of instruction would have been observed. The only folks whose nose would have been out of joint would have been the folks who are hostile to FBS athletics, anyhow. Sometimes you have to be firm and show leadership.

The day Cal alters the academic schedule for an extracurricular activity is the day the University announces to the world that it is no longer a premier academic institution. Cal would be the laughingstock of the academic world........

The answer is simple - either change the rule or play the game off campus. Hopefully, the proposal put forward by the Stanford President will be put into play before 2016 - no games on week nights. The notion of week night games was a stupid idea to start with.....

71Bear;842370108 said:

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The day Cal alters the academic schedule for an extracurricular activity is the day the University announces to the world that it is no longer a premier academic institution. Cal would be the laughingstock of the academic world........

The answer is simple - either change the rule or play the game off campus. Hopefully, the proposal put forward by the Stanford President will be put into play before 2016 - no games on week nights. The notion of week night games was a stupid idea to start with.....

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1. I doubt it. How would these other institutions even know why we schedule our academic holidays? How many classes are there after 3:00 PM on a Friday anyway? If we gave all employees a half day on a single Friday once every two years, it would do nothing to damage our academic reputation. However, if it was a concern, the easy alternative would be to have the Pac-12 adjust THEIR schedule and schedule our weeknight game when we have an academic holiday already scheduled.

2. Agree with your main point that weekday night games are a bad idea and are unnecessary.

If it were to happen, it would be publicized immediately. There are no secrets in the University system......

bota bag maybe?

Mikeman;842370138 said:

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bota bag maybe?

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That's OG.

71Bear;842370122 said:

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If it were to happen, it would be publicized immediately. There are no secrets in the University system......

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Well...now that the chancellor has gone on record as saying D1 student athletes are as important as anyone on campus (contrary to the current climate), and that Cal will graduate athletes at the overall student grad rate....then maybe if he made the decision to close campus for a half day, Cal wouldn't be looked at as "the laughing stock of the academic world". Cal will never be looked at that way.

Rob, you're coming off as over dramatic.

Gotta disagree, DD...

Regardless, the answer is the Stanford approach - no more week night games...........

well maybe not the traditional way....but still one way to decant wine

71Bear;842370532 said:

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Gotta disagree, DD...

Regardless, the answer is the Stanford approach - no more week night games...........

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Yes, and I agree that no more week night games is the way to go....unfortunately it is done by league vote.
And the TV contract. That was also a league President's vote to do it. I don't think that Stanford (and Cal) will be the tail wagging the dog here.

DrDanger;842370545 said:

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Yes, and I agree that no more week night games is the way to go....unfortunately it is done by league vote.
And the TV contract. That was also a league President's vote to do it. I don't think that Stanford (and Cal) will be the tail wagging the dog here.

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When the TV contract is up, there might be more universities than Cal and Stanford wanting out of the weekday games. Not sure how much that can change before 2023 without giving significant money back, though. At least Cal and Stanford got promises from the league that there would be no Thursday home games. UCLA and USC have LA traffic to deal with, but are really popular with the networks, so it seems like they will play Thursdays as frequently as allowed. CU is a very compact campus and has issues with FB weeknight parking, I know that. UW/Seattle traffic is horrible. Oregon/OSU rely on a large contingent of commuters from Portland. The question is really how much TV money is gained w/ the thursday games.

I'd be completely be in favor of a non-even TV revenue split based on what time slots a team opts in or asks out of. Sort of a substantial bonus for every time one plays on a thursday or a saturday night even. Basically monetize the undesirable times, and create an incentive. Late night Saturday games and Thursday/Friday games kill attendance which is simply $$ out of a schools pocket. And what is kind of BS is that the more popular teams nationally will be selected into these higher revenue time slots, so they are truly being penalized for being MORE popular. (An aside, I'd also like uneven TV pay for OOC games - not fair that some schools can game the system with FCS crap free win games and get the same $$ from TV as USC v ND, which as a standalone game is worth more than most bowl games).

We really do need to be aware of the finances of the weeknight game off campus - If the USC game is played off campus, is there any doubt it would cost Cal millions of dollars (odd year = no other big draw home games unless the AD learns to schedule big OOC games in odd years -> likely season ticket sale go way way down)?

FiatSlug;842370101 said:

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If there's a will, there's a way.

The easiest way is to structure the academic calendar to allow for declaring an academic holiday. For instance, Instruction began on Thursday, August 28. The calendar could have been adjusted:
(1) to begin Instruction on Wednesday, August 27 or
(2) hold classes on Labor Day (Mon., September 1)

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There is no way the unions representing many Cal employees will stand for working on Labor Day. Otherwise, I like your idea. It just makes sense to not hold classes on the day of a weeknight football game. Sooner or later the Cal administration will recognize that.

Golden One;842370572 said:

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There is no way the unions representing many Cal employees will stand for working on Labor Day. Otherwise, I like your idea. It just makes sense to not hold classes on the day of a weeknight football game. Sooner or later the Cal administration will recognize that.

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I understand that. I threw that out there as a way of describing the options available (meaning: not many)

Personally, I believe that in Cal's situation the best options are: (1) all games on a Saturday or (2) if a weeknight games is required play it on a Friday (traffic is actually not as heavy as on a Thursday afternoon commute.)

Cal's conditions for a weeknight game include:

• lack of available on-campus parking
  
• afternoon/evening commute traffic at the same time as fans trying to get to the stadium
  
• commuters using some of the same routes compounded by traffic congestion immediately adjacent to the stadium
  

Further, as others have mentioned or alluded to, Cal takes a financial hit with the weeknight game due to reduced attendance. I think that the TV contract may also undermine the long-term health of football's fanbase: it encourages football fans to stay home. It does not encourage them to come out to the stadium.

bearsahead2;842369994 said:

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Tickets arrived in today's mail - not very pleased as we're low (row 7) in section C141 (around the 20 yardline). Since Cal only has approximately 2,500 ESP seats that have been sold, it seems like we should've received better seating. While assigned parking is in green lot 1 which allows tailgating, it says that no glass containers are allowed -suppose that means wine bottles which is what we mostly consume. I hope we don't make a habit of playing an occasional game at Levi Stadium!

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Got mine today also. They are in section C141, row 18. The parking pass I received is also for Green Lot 1 and for some reason says row 7, seat 25. Do the parking lots have numbered spaces and rows? What else could this mean?

Golden One;842370651 said:

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The parking pass I received is also for Green Lot 1 and for some reason says row 7, seat 25. Do the parking lots have numbered spaces and rows? What else could this mean?

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Yeah, I take that to mean that the parking spaces must be numbered, by row and by space (or "seat").

re: the schedule in odd years... As much as I loathed Barbour, the one thing she did right was attempt to flip the Big Game from even to odd at Memorial. That would have been a huge benefit to Cal and the Bears would not have given up anything (playing one game at Levi's and then playing at home the following year sounds like Cal was getting a sweet deal compared to our friends at LSJU). Of course, the process of communicating the idea was classic Barbour - completely screwed up.

Oh well, we will continue with the lopsided schedule (even/odd) into the future for who knows how long....

FiatSlug;842370596 said:

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I think that the TV contract may also undermine the long-term health of football's fanbase: it encourages football fans to stay home. It does not encourage them to come out to the stadium.

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I completely agree.

Golden One;842370572 said:

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It just makes sense to not hold classes on the day of a weeknight football game.

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I don't get it. Do students go to the games?

71Bear;842370674 said:

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re: the schedule in odd years... As much as I loathed Barbour, the one thing she did right was attempt to flip the Big Game from even to odd at Memorial. That would have been a huge benefit to Cal and the Bears would not have given up anything (playing one game at Levi's and then playing at home the following year sounds like Cal was getting a sweet deal compared to our friends at LSJU). Of course, the process of communicating the idea was classic Barbour - completely screwed up.

Oh well, we will continue with the lopsided schedule (even/odd) into the future for who knows how long....

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I'm curious. How is it that you see the current odd/even year lineups for Cal's home schedule as lopsided? Looking back over the attendance figures at Cal Memorial starting with 1997, it's pretty obvious that the Big Game accounts for a higher average in even-numbered years.

However, switching the Big Game attendance figures to the next year (odd-numbered years) produces a similar difference in average game attendance, only in favor of the odd-numbered year. What I'm saying is that the Big Game is average attendance neutral: moving the Big Game to an odd-numbered year wouldn't moderate or even out the ticket revenues from even-numbered years to odd-numbered years.

The 49ers cut quite a nice deal for themselves and Barbour really screwed Cal fans, especially the premium seat holders.
She belongs at PedoU.

I went to the Cal-UW game on Friday night and it wasn't that bad. I'm a season ticket holder with a parking pass and like most others had to fend on my own for parking. But I'd rather do that and play at Memorial than go to Santa Clara and have one less game at our beloved Memorial.

Looperbear;842370742 said:

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I went to the Cal-UW game on Friday night and it wasn't that bad. I'm a season ticket holder with a parking pass and like most others had to fend on my own for parking. But I'd rather do that and play at Memorial than go to Santa Clara and have one less game at our beloved Memorial.

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I had the same experience and started this thread to see if others had a really hard time: http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?80216-Was-2012-UW-game-that-much-of-a-hassle

I agree...if we have to have Friday night games, just figure out work-arounds and keep the game on campus. (An even better solution is to not have weekday games, but I doubt that will change.)

Best date to schedule a weekday night game would be the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Cal is playing BYU this year on the day after Thanksgiving...but after that, get a conference game in there and play it at night.

Campus will be empty...and likely the stands. But the contractual obligation will be done.

beelzebear;842370764 said:

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Campus will be empty...and likely the stands. But the contractual obligation will be done.

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We can lobby for that game to be on Friday, but the decision ultimately comes down to who do the networks want. It can't be the Big Game - that's excluded from being on Thanksgiving weekend. So it requires that the North-South game involves Cal and is MORE interesting than the 4-5 rivalry games that weekend.

I received my tickets in the mail today in section 142. I am in section HH at Memorial Stadium, so I am satisfied with my seats. I do not mind going this year to Levi's Stadium to see the stadium. I do not want to go there in the future for any home games. I am concerned that Oregon will have more fans than us. I went to the Washington game when it was on Friday and took a shuttle. Several years before that I went to the ASU game using Bart which I believe was on a Thursday. Maybe if the weeknight game started at 7:00 in Berkeley it would work better. The game against BYU is on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It will be interesting to see what kind of turnout we have.

Cal has till 2016 to fulfill its obligation for the next weeknight game on campus. The administration has to be proactive and get a plan in place way before then. I don't think Levi's Stadium will be an option by then, for the loss revenue to Cal and the fanbase negative reaction to losing a home game.

teknofreek;842370973 said:

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Cal has till 2016 to fulfill its obligation for the next weeknight game on campus. The administration has to be proactive and get a plan in place way before then. I don't think Levi's Stadium will be an option by then, for the loss revenue to Cal and the fanbase negative reaction to losing a home game.

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And what better place than Cal Memorial?

teknofreek;842370973 said:

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Cal has till 2016 to fulfill its obligation for the next weeknight game on campus.

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Werll that's somewhat wrong and misleading, too. First off, Cal does not get to choose when it gets to fulfill its obligation - that's a right the networks bought. Sure, like anything, we can lobby and maybe someone listens, but probably not.

Also, there is nothing preventing a friday home game in 2015. The actual rule is 2 games in 3 years. Which works out math wise as there are 8 weekday games per year and 12 teams. If we don't host a weekday home game in 2015, we would host one in 2016 AND 2017.

Satisfied with seats--C240, 45 yard line. (Green lot with seat numbers LOL) Not going to get my knickers in a twist over this off-site game. It is better than a week night game at CMS in my opinion. Approaching this as a look at Levi Stadium, and why the Niner fans leave their seats [U]during[/U] the game. Must be something special under the stands. I know, it is sunny and hot and they can't stand the heat. Oh to be faithful in our cool, windy, old Candlestick gem.