Pretty sad.

I don't know if Cal will ever come close to selling out a non-California game, people just don't want to go through the hassle of going to games anymore.

What hassle? On-campus, easy access to BART, beautiful afternoon. I don't get it.

LessMilesMoreTedford;842561989 said:

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Pretty sad.

I don't know if Cal will ever come close to selling out a non-California game, people just don't want to go through the hassle of going to games anymore.

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I was shocked and embarrassed about how empty it was.

Seattle Times' WSU beat reporter....

Wish I wasn't stuck in South Bend, but sitting on my chair for the games is pretty nice.

We are all Cal fans and pretty happy with 5-0, but this team is not good for casual fans. It is VERY hard to watch. Every game is a spectacle of how to almost lose.

Cal has only had a couple wins where we were good enough for the game to not be in question on the opponents last drive (or last play).

Last year:
* Northwestern (5-7). A game WELL in hand. Almost lost it. JJefferson INT to save the day on the Cal 15 yard line.
* Sac State. No one gives a damn about D8 schools getting thrashed
* Colorado (2-10). TWO OT
* WSU (3-9). Win on a 19 yard FG (from the 2 yardline!)
* OSU (5-7). Only game we had well in hand... with 1:39 left.

2015:
* A blowout of a Band who brought a team?
* A pretty good showing against a city college out of San Diego (2-3)
* Texas (1-4) won on a fluke missed 20 yard attempt
* Washington (2-2) won on an INT in the last 2 minutes
* WSU (2-2) Game still in question on the last play.

3 consecutive games saved in the final minutes. One by a kick missed from the 3 yard line this time.

People like to see teams they can count on to win. Not teams where every game, even against extremely mediocre opponents is likely to be a nail-biter last drive decision. Not when 7 of 8 in division wins are decided in the last couple minutes. We have ONE good-for-the-casual fan win in 17 games.

Cal might be ranked, but finding a way to win week in-week out against eh teams and losing to everyone else is NOT what makes the game interesting. Everyone knows those teams we beat are not good, and Cal looks like it might hang on against them, it makes us look less appealing.

Beat a Utah in the last minute and it will drive interest. Get to 7 wins over the next 4 games and it will drive interest. But 5 games against eh teams, 3 of them going down to the wire? Casual fans dont want to see that.

Sad that Cal does not have 65k diehard excited for the team win or lose fans, but 42k against Washington State, the way the team is playing, is pretty good.



Dykes HAS to learn to win games decisively against division opponents to get fans on board. That or win an absurd number of close games, like 10 a season.

Pretty bad. I expected something like 50k for this game. I know WSU is not much of a draw, but this is an undefeated team here!

I expect to see lots of empty seats on Halloween now.

Phantomfan;842562034 said:

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We are all Cal fans and pretty happy with 5-0, but this team is not good for casual fans. It is VERY hard to watch. Every game is a spectacle of how to almost lose.

Cal has only had a couple wins where we were good enough for the game to not be in question on the opponents last drive (or last play).

Last year:
* Northwestern (5-7). A game WELL in hand. Almost lost it. JJefferson INT to save the day on the Cal 15 yard line.
* Sac State. No one gives a damn about D8 schools getting thrashed
* Colorado (2-10). TWO OT
* WSU (3-9). Win on a 19 yard FG (from the 2 yardline!)
* OSU (5-7). Only game we had well in hand... with 1:39 left.

2015:
* A blowout of a Band who brought a team?
* A pretty good showing against a city college out of San Diego (2-3)
* Texas (1-4) won on a fluke missed 20 yard attempt
* Washington (2-2) won on an INT in the last 2 minutes
* WSU (2-2) Game still in question on the last play.

3 consecutive games saved in the final minutes. One by a kick missed from the 3 yard line this time.

People like to see teams they can count on to win. Not teams where every game, even against extremely mediocre opponents is likely to be a nail-biter last drive decision. Not when 7 of 8 in division wins are decided in the last couple minutes. We have ONE good-for-the-casual fan win in 17 games.

Cal might be ranked, but finding a way to win week in-week out against eh teams and losing to everyone else is NOT what makes the game interesting. Everyone knows those teams we beat are not good, and Cal looks like it might hang on against them, it makes us look less appealing.

Beat a Utah in the last minute and it will drive interest. Get to 7 wins over the next 4 games and it will drive interest. But 5 games against eh teams, 3 of them going down to the wire? Casual fans dont want to see that.

Sad that Cal does not have 65k diehard excited for the team win or lose fans, but 42k against Washington State, the way the team is playing, is pretty good.



Dykes HAS to learn to win games decisively against division opponents to get fans on board. That or win an absurd number of close games, like 10 a season.

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When Tedford had dominant teams Cal struggled to sell out most seasons.

This is just a Bay Area problem. Cal alum and grads do not want to go to non-marquee games.

Cal needs to rebalance the schedule a little on odd years. Switch Oregon with Oregon State or something. The even years have the dynamo home schedules. Very few people are enticed by OSU/ASU/WSU and don't buy season tickets.

Compare 2015 Cal home schedule with 2016. I expect Memorial to be much more crowded next year.

I was pretty disappointed as well looking around the stadium at kickoff.

I am sure there will be all sorts of excuses - kids, family obligations, opponent, start time (as if there is ever a 'right' start time to satisfy everybody), etc, etc, etc...

I remember Stanford getting needled by many Cal fans for being unable to sell out their 50,000 seat stadium when they started showing up in the rankings.

Considering the size of our alumni base relative to theirs, I thought it was pretty embarrassing that we would not have been able to sell out that same 50,000 seat stadium for a ranked Cal team that shows a tremendous amount of heart, grit, effort... and wins!

Geez, some of you guys just like to complain!

Cal got 59000 for new Mexico state in JTs third year. That was a miracle. But the fan base had a winner. Year three was a great Cal team.

Unless you live within 100 miles of CMS, its an all day commitment to go to a game. With all of them on TV, its sometimes a better plan to leave the tix in the envelope and watch on TV.

Cal fan here who lives a two mile walk from Memorial Stadium. I have a girlfriend whose not into football but will go if I'm enthusiastic. Not a die-hard fan, not pretending to be one. I've been a big fan of Cal football since I was a kid, and used to love going to games when I was <10, it was a huge highlight. The renovated stadium is not a fun COLLEGE gameday atmosphere for me. Blaring advertisements throughout, barely any band utilization, incredibly cramped bleacher seats - less legroom than before the modernization, and higher prices. I'm 6'3" and I just plain old don't fit. The gameday atmosphere has gotten worse, the price has gone up, and either I've gotten bigger, or the seats have gotten more cramped. I'm not looking to start an argument here - you can tell me the gameday atmosphere is comparable to other venues, and tell me the seats aren't cramped compared to any other venues and the prices are reasonable and it won't change my mind. I'm just letting you know why I don't attend games, even though I'm a Cal fan and could walk to the stadium under different circumstances. I'm a tall grad student, on a budget, looking for quality entertainment that is a decent value, and Cal just isn't offering me that currently, despite my interest. One man's thoughts, no more.

As mentioned earlier this week, there seems to be a one year lag for Cal attendance at CMS.

MoragaBear;842562069 said:

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Meanwhile, Stanford plays Arizona, UCLA and Washington at home three consecutive weeks, has two of the easier road games in Colorado and WSU then returns home for three straight games again, with Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame. Interesting home games 6 of 8 weeks.

Still wouldn't be surprised to see Cal outdraw them.

As for Cal? Between 9/12 and 10/31? Exactly one home game against WSU. That will build some great fan momentum.

I'd like to know who makes these schedules and if Cal has any say in the final decisions because that's pretty awful. You have to go back to the 90's to find 4 of 5 consecutive games on the road. Just horrible planning.

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Yes we all know how pathetic the Farm is at drawing fans.

Not the point.

Cal has ten times as many students and graduates every year than the Furd. Probably at least a good million who live in the Bay or at least an hour's drive away.

Should be more than enough alumni to fill Memorial Stadium.

And yet the problem persists.

Baby steps...baby steps..

LessMilesMoreTedford;842562072 said:

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Yes we all know how pathetic the Farm is at drawing fans.

Not the point.

Cal has ten times as many students and graduates every year than the Furd. Probably at least a good million who live in the Bay or at least an hour's drive away.

Should be more than enough alumni to fill Memorial Stadium.

And yet the problem persists.

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At least a good million? No way. A gross exaggeration.

1. There are 7 million people in the Bay Area. You think at least 1 in 7 went to Cal?
2. There are 464,000 living alumni in all. Even if all of them lived in the Bay Area, it wouldn't be at half your number.

https://www.berkeley.edu/about/fact.shtml

grandmastapoop;842562080 said:

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At least a good million? No way. A gross exaggeration.

1. There are 7 million people in the Bay Area. You think at least 1 in 7 went to Cal?
2. There are 464,000 living alumni in all. Even if all of them lived in the Bay Area, it wouldn't be at half your number.

https://www.berkeley.edu/about/fact.shtml

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They are probable more Cal people in Socal than in the bay area. Just a guess. I used to come up with my wife for day games, but now with young kids, it would be just utter torture.

okaydo;842562000 said:

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Seattle Times' WSU beat reporter....

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It did look bad at that time and about half full a few minutes before kickoff but people kept coming. Looked okay five minutes into the game. We should have bigger crowds. This team deserves better.

Took 30 minutes to get out of Underhill - people stayed to the end.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see if the players felt more motivated to play for the fans(friends and family) who travel to the away games.

burritos;842562092 said:

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Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see if the players felt more motivated to play for the fans(friends and family) who travel to the away games.

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At least they are accustomed to it, we have seen sparse showings since 2012.

grandmastapoop;842561994 said:

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I was shocked and embarrassed about how empty it was.

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It was homecoming.
As I walked through Camus I saw lots of people in blue and gold having something to eat. I expected them to show up late. They did.

The stadium always looks empty up until kick off. I'm not sure why people aren't prompt or early. My friends and I pre-game at our old haunts. The fact that I can walk there and get in pretty easily means I'm waiting until the last minute to get in. I'd rather have Top Dog or La Burrita than expensive stadium food.

1979bear;842562065 said:

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Unless you live within 100 miles of CMS, its an all day commitment to go to a game. With all of them on TV, its sometimes a better plan to leave the tix in the envelope and watch on TV.

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Say you will about the South and the Big 12 or the SEC. Even if you live five minutes from a stadium you MAKE it an all day event. It is just the culture here. That is not the culture in the Bay Area

LessMilesMoreTedford;842562053 said:

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When Tedford had dominant teams Cal struggled to sell out most seasons.

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Kind of true, but even for the least exciting matchups in those years we got at least 50k in the stadium during the middle of Tedford's heyday. This season we are below that.

But then again, in Tedford's first two seasons the attendance was certainly lower. People are slow to figure out when a team is good -- 50k+ for every game didn't start showing up until 2004.

The other really bad thing (which overlaps with what some of you said) is that if Cal has a few bad seasons, that seems to kill home attendance, as in kill it dead. You don't see that in the Big 12 or the SEC.

The JT years prove that Cal fan enthusiasm can be revived though.

Cool we can fill Memorial stadium with Trojans Oct 31. I hope Cal is undefeated when we play.


Mooooohaaaaaaa!!!!

That's my evil laugh.

If you think 40K is unacceptable for a Power 5 conference game, just check out Duke. Duke (who was ranked itself briefly) had 20K for games against ranked Georgia Tech and ranked Northwestern....in a refurbished stadium to boot.

40,000 is pretty good for a WSU team nobody cares about

Phantomfan;842562034 said:

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2015:
* A blowout of a Band who brought a team?

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I chortled.

The biggest disappointment was the student section. I know all the arguments about modern students being just too busy to attend games.......hogwash. If you don't want to attend then let's give those fantastic 50 yard line seats to paying customers at a reduced price and see how fast they will fill up. An undefeated team charging out of the tunnel and seeing the student section less than 50% full was just plain pathetic. Also complaining about the game day experience and the newly renovated stadium is a poor excuse. if you need luxury go to Levi's Stadium and pay a kings ransom to watch mediocre football.

I would surmise with a few exceptions that attendance is down in general for sporting events in the new digital and mobile age.

There will always be a demand for premium sporting event seats (i.e. West Side of Memorial), while the cheaper seats (East Side) don't offer an enticing enough reason to get off the couch and eschew the home viewing experience.