If the alcohol checkpoint was gone the section would be full every game.

grandmastapoop;842561994 said:

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I was shocked and embarrassed about how empty it was.

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I was embarrassed, but not shocked. The Cal fan base just doesn't turn out for games. Our team deserves better.

LessMilesMoreTedford;842562072 said:

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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.
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Wrong. Cal does NOT have ten times as many students as the Furd. Total enrollment at Stanfurd is 16,000. Total enrollment at Cal is 37,500. So, Cal has 2.3 times the enrollment of Stanfurd.

1990GoldenBear;842562279 said:

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The student section was full, but it was not until after kickoff. So the real problem is that the students come in late. I think it is more noticeable in the student section because it fills up from the bottom to the top since there are no assigned seats. At kickoff, the bottom is full, but the top half is empty. The rest of the stadium doesn't look so bad because it gradually fills since the alumni have assigned seats so the empty seats are not that obvious. I myself did not get in until about 5 minutes after kickoff. There were still a ton of alumni going in with me, so we can't really blame the students -- we were all late.

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Don't know what student section you were looking at, but I sit directly opposite the student section in ESP seats and the student section was not even close to full at any time during the game yesterday.

bearister;842562469 said:

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Yeah, it looks like Cal's current undergrads are loyal and generous alums in the making. After 4 years they will leave town with a diploma in one hand, flipping the bird with the other, and never to be seen or heard from again.

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That's the state school tradition...but it also use to be you stayed in the state and paid taxes for 45 years or so, and it all evened out.

Seriously fees were $1,200 a year when I was at Cal. I think I paid that back quite a few times and then some on state income tax, and all the other taxes that support the sate like gas, property and business tax.

Golden One;842562731 said:

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Don't know what student section you were looking at, but I sit directly opposite the student section in ESP seats and the student section was not even close to full at any time during the game yesterday.

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I, also being an ESP'er, can second that. The student section was at most 3/4, or maybe 4/5, full at its maximum during the WSU game. By the 4th quarter it was less than half full.

The droff-off on this board has been far more significant than the drop-off in stadium attendance. 7-8 years ago there'd have been 50-60 people, at least, in chat after the game, and it would have gone on til midnight. Any random tuesday during the season would have 30-40 and several of those would be active chatters. Now, unless MB announces a recruiting chat it's a dead zone.

But it'll only take one truly good season to start to rebuild.

lurkerbear;842562746 said:

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The droff-off on this board has been far more significant than the drop-off in stadium attendance. 7-8 years ago there'd have been 50-60 people, at least, in chat after the game, and it would have gone on til midnight. Any random tuesday during the season would have 30-40 and several of those would be active chatters. Now, unless MB announces a recruiting chat it's a dead zone.

But it'll only take one truly good season to start to rebuild.

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This is that season, at least for now.

Remember the years after Synder? Lucky to get 20,000 in the stands. Tedford came along; wins mounted up; more fans filled the seats. The fair weather fans will be there when Cal starts playing better non-conference games in addition to being Nationaly ranked...

As has been mentioned - attendance is down in high school football and it follows that college football is losing it too. Way too many other forms of "entertainment" nowadays..Don't compare it to "your day" - school spirit and all the rest..it's lost to so many other factors playing in college student lives these days. New student populations aren't all from football backgrounds or that culture. Other sports have gobbled up those who would have come to "cheer on their team". The game is too long - too many stops. Yeah, and the effort to get to a game, the people you may have to sit with - the long lines, etc etc..The entertainment factor is gone - especially to those who don't understand the game - which applies more and more to young students today. The alcohol check thing seems a joke since there are a zillion ways to get booze in and it might still be easier to drink a beer at the frat with the wide screen. In my case - Old and loyal Blue - the grandkids can't really do the games yet - so we stay home with them to at least make sure they are Cal fans from birth. Ever try to juggle a little one at a game?? Go Bears Beat the Utes!!

Strykur;842562703 said:

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If the alcohol checkpoint was gone the section would be full every game.

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Are you saying that there is an alcohol checkpoint?

1979bear;842562258 said:

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Why is it so hard to imagine that today's 20 year olds don't care about college football? If the team is winning, that adds excitement. But just to go watch football? Against Washington State? I didn't want to see that game when I was at Cal. I enjoyed those games AFTER I graduated. I'm much more interested as an alum. And you don't take the seats away from the students. If you do, they'll never come back as alums, because they won't have been there as students. Unless the team is a big winner, it will not sell out. Even big game has had empty seats for five years. Never happened when I was a student. Automatic sell out. TV and DVR and convenience and cost will keep thousands home every game. Sometimes that will be me.

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Cost should not be an issue for any Cal alum. The price of admission to Cal football games is more reasonable than just about any other leisure activity in the Bay Area.

I guess someone needs to spell things out in no uncertain terms: [SIZE=5]FOOTBALL IS A DYING SPORT[/SIZE].

And there's plenty of other stuff to doing in Berkeley, like participate instead of watch.

GOCAL73;842562318 said:

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The thing I don't get is a self-described Cal fan posting excuses why they don't attend Cal games. If you live within 50 miles of CMS and you are not bed ridden or under house arrest, the only valid excuse is you choose not to. In that case what good are you as a Cal fan? Unless you give lots of money to the program, you are no help to the players who do not hear your voice or see you in the stands - that's what "fans" are for, support and encouragement. Not sure what to call you, but "fan" is not an appropriate description.

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Amen! I completely agree with you. If you live in the Bay Area and don't attend Cal games and/or don't regularly contribute dollars to the Athletic Department, you're not a Cal fan, period.

lurkerbear;842562746 said:

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The droff-off on this board has been far more significant than the drop-off in stadium attendance. 7-8 years ago there'd have been 50-60 people, at least, in chat after the game, and it would have gone on til midnight. Any random tuesday during the season would have 30-40 and several of those would be active chatters. Now, unless MB announces a recruiting chat it's a dead zone.

But it'll only take one truly good season to start to rebuild.

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We did some weeding around here. Now only the heavy hitters post.

Number 031343;842562414 said:

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As a student in the early 60's, I noted that few of my contemporaries, even Juniors and Seniors, attended football games. I might have attended two a year. Yet, a considerably higher percentage followed the games on the radio. The reason was the unquestioned need to study. Classroom demands were huge, peer competition, grading on the curve, sheer time demand to do the reading and lab work and an awareness of the importance of getting into grad school overrode all other considerations. You would pry yourself away for UCLA, USC and Stanford (when they were at home) and that was it. You still wanted the bears to win. Any of that changed?

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That's no excuse. I was a chemical engineering major (generally considered to be the toughest major at Cal) who lived off campus, and I attended every home game and every Big Game at Furd all 4 undergraduate years.

Golden One;842562778 said:

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Cost should not be an issue for any Cal alum. The price of admission to Cal football games is more reasonable than just about any other leisure activity in the Bay Area.

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You're right if you live within 100 miles of CMS. Not for those that need to fly in or drive for five hours. But the point was chiefly that I'm not surprised students often don't care about football. If I was 20 today, I might not care either. I cared in 1979 and after.

sycasey - on the money - it takes 2-3 years of good teams for attendance to pick up at Cal in my observation of the last 53 years of Cal football. There are always 25-30,000 diehards, but to get to 50,000 it takes time.

Wrong, wrong and wrong

We were favored to blow them out...and Wazzu is weak anyways- the place will rock on Halloween...especially after we beat Utah...

The missing element was the students- how ironic that you can get smashed right across the field in the Club section but students can't...

Golden One;842562788 said:

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That's no excuse. I was a chemical engineering major (generally considered to be the toughest major at Cal) who lived off campus, and I attended every home game and every Big Game at Furd all 4 undergraduate years.

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Wow, goody for you. No one needs to attend football games. No one needs an excuse. If you like going, you go. You don't seriously think students have some obligation to go do you? I sure the he'll don't, and I love Cal football.

LessMilesMoreTedford;842562053 said:

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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.

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I was at the game and thought the crowd was great. Sure,it wasn't full, but those that were there were loud and there was a lot to cheer about. One of the more fun games I've been to.

MoragaBear;842562817 said:

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I'm convinced that the internet -largely fan sites and social networking- have sucked so many people into an inert vortex that getting off the couch and doing things like going to athletic events just doesn't happen nearly as often for a lot of people.

I'd be willing to bet that if you deprived students and the general population of internet for a month, attendance habits would change in a major way.

TV plays somewhat of a role, too, since every game's on tv, but I don't think it's nearly as big a factor in getting someone off the couch and out to the game -or out, in general -anywhere.

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Are you suggesting interrupting their selfie sessions?

Golden One;842562788 said:

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That's no excuse. I was a chemical engineering major (generally considered to be the toughest major at Cal) who lived off campus, and I attended every home game and every Big Game at Furd all 4 undergraduate years.

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Goody for you, or whatever. I graduated with honors and went to Princeton for grad school. Never regretted a minute of it.

MoragaBear;842562817 said:

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I'm convinced that the internet -largely fan sites and social networking- have sucked so many people into an inert vortex that getting off the couch and doing things like going to athletic events just doesn't happen nearly as often for a lot of people.

I'd be willing to bet that if you deprived students and the general population of internet for a month, attendance habits would change in a major way.

TV plays somewhat of a role, too, since every game's on tv, but I don't think it's nearly as big a factor in getting someone off the couch and out to the game -or out, in general -anywhere.

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If you deprived kids, or anyone, internet access for a month, there would be rioting in the street, perhaps a per-cursor to a revolution. I know if I were an anarchist, that's how I'd look at it. My logic? The interwebz has become the ideal opiate for the masses: totally customization, totally personal, delivered anywhere a person happens to be. Cut that off and I don't think people would suddenly start going to FB games...I think they'd realized a lot of other sh*t is going on that they don't like.

Big Brother isn't watching you...you in fact are watching Big Brother, and he follows you everywhere. Me included.

Tedford averaged around 60K per game after 2004 through 2010. Including the low games - typically Washington State. Those were in the mid 50k. But this is early in the Dykes tenure. We have averaged 51,074 per game so far this year, including Gramdbing, Washington State and San Diego State. I am sure we will sell out USC and possibly Oregon State, but with ASU over thanksgiving that could be an issue.

In any event, we should be in the mid 50K by the end of the year. Not too bad and at the end of the day we only had one marquis game at home this year. Next year, with Utah, UCLA, Oregon Stanford and Texas at home, that will be a much bigger year for home attendance. I imagine that we average over 60K next year.

beelzebear;842562863 said:

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If you deprived kids, or anyone, internet access for a month, there would be rioting in the street, perhaps a per-cursor to a revolution. I know if I were an anarchist, that's how I'd look at it. My logic? The interwebz has become the ideal opiate for the masses: totally customization, totally personal, delivered anywhere a person happens to be. Cut that off and I don't think people would suddenly start going to FB games...I think they'd realized a lot of other sh*t is going on that they don't like.

Big Brother isn't watching you...you in fact are watching Big Brother, and he follows you everywhere. Me included.

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Nah, you're watching yourself. Narcissism. Self-love trumps self-interest.

As long as we draw better than furd, we're doing something right.
And those that think Saturday's game was worth missing, don't know what they missed.
That was a very entertaining game to see live and Cal won it the same way top ranked teams win on off days, by grinding it out and making huge individual efforts at critical times.

I was pretty impressed and encouraged.

I have season tickets, live in SoCal, and travel to almost every home game, (usually every home game) in every year. I pay for a hotel, food, gas, wear and tear on the car, and double or triple it for the number of people I bring with me or entertain while in Berkeley.

I come to the games for one reason.......the atmosphere. If it were just for the football, I could watch the game on TV in much more comfort than the cramped conditions at CMS, see the game better than at the stadium, and save a ton of money. But there is something special about being at the game and being witness to the entertainment (or weirdness) that is Cal football.

But here's the thing: I can' t even see the team coming through the tunnel anymore because of the smoke,fog,steam, whatever the hell it is. In fact, now, with the plastic fantastic inflatable bear, I can't even see the tunnel. The poor Cal Band was trying to play for the team as they took the field, and the press box was playing some sh*t including air raid sirens (thank you Huskies for letting us steal YOUR tradition), piped in music (WHILE Cal band was trying to play a Cal song), and the haze from the pyrotechnics, etc. etc. etc. and totally overwhelmed the team entrance. Before kickoff, while the students and the band were trying to do their traditional noise for the kickoff, I couldn't hear it because the press box once again amped some unneeded crap, which buried the sound of the student section and the band. During the game, instead of hearing Cal Band play when play stopped, I heard the same dumb sh*t I heard last year that silenced the young men and women who work so hard to make Cal Band such a part of the Cal experience, while I practically suffocated in the cramped confines of my seat.

I have always worked really hard NOT to miss pregame. But even when I'm there, I miss much of it anyway because I can't see or hear it even by attending. So, if you don't see me (or some students) at the stadium at kickoff in the future, you'll have some ideas as to why that might be. And the more they keep piping in all the overdone promos, contests, "bear hug cams" etc. etc. during the game, the more my 50 yard line seat with my flat screen becomes a better investment of my time and money.

I haven't read every single response here, but I didn't see this one: As someone who lives in SoCal, they have made it more and more difficult to plan a trip for a game. Saturday's game was at 1:00. It would have been a perfect chance to fly up in the morning, go to the game, and fly back that night. And it's pretty easy to get cheap plane tickets to do so. The problem is that they don't announce the game time until as little as six days before the game, and that completely eliminates the ability to find cheap flights. Sure, I could plan for an overnight trip, but I have a wife and two kids, so that's usually not possible. But I could get away with a "day trip" as long as I could plan it far enough in advance to (1) get a reasonable airfare and (2) make sure my family had advance warning and could plan around it.

Unfortunately, that's rarely possible, so I watch on TV. The money is in the TV rights, so the TV contracts control. And they want to wait as long as possible to see which games they want to feature each week. Sure, it may be better for TV revenues, but it makes it really tough on out of town fans who would otherwise travel to games more often.

oskithepimp;842562814 said:

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I was at the game and thought the crowd was great. Sure,it wasn't full, but those that were there were loud and there was a lot to cheer about. One of the more fun games I've been to.

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Although it may have been more stressful than ideal (with the game in doubt near the end), that's pretty much how I interpreted being at the game.

beelzebear;842562863 said:

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If you deprived kids, or anyone, internet access for a month, there would be rioting in the street, perhaps a per-cursor to a revolution. I know if I were an anarchist, that's how I'd look at it. My logic? The interwebz has become the ideal opiate for the masses: totally customization, totally personal, delivered anywhere a person happens to be. Cut that off and I don't think people would suddenly start going to FB games...I think they'd realized a lot of other sh*t is going on that they don't like.

Big Brother isn't watching you...you in fact are watching Big Brother, and he follows you everywhere. Me included.

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Yep. Searching and chatting on devices is the new drug of choice, more fixating that the best pot kids ever smoked, with even more intense effects as the "high" continues on as long as the person wants, along with interactions with other electronic stoners, not sitting alone or in small groups munching while lost in space.

The devices rule and they have to have the latest one, choosing bandwidth over a band for their time and money.

Hail2Calif;842562683 said:

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If getting students on the 50 is so important (enough so that I can't think of another P5 program that gives up THAT much prime real estate for the students) then I suggest making the student sections the bottom half of the east side, roughly between the 20's. The upper half seats can be sold for way more than what students pay - and maybe the extra revenue gives us a little bit of a break from the constant advertisements and gimmicks at every single break (okay, that may be going too far).

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Your thinking is WEAK. Cal STRONG!

The student section is a lot closer to selling out than any other section. We can't sell out the ESP section. So why the hell would we create more premium seats? There isn't a demand, so why create more supply?

The students aren't the problem. Old people are the problem. This shouldn't even come up until we can fill the rest of the sections.

Memorial Stadium will be filled if Sonny can sustain things. It takes a little while to recover from the consistently crappy teams Dykes and Tedford have fielded the seven years.

Wow. Lot of get-off-my-lawn old man talk.

Yes, technology has given more people options. If a game at Memorial Stadium can't incentivize students to come, don't blame the technology. What's ignored are the ways technology has helped in outreach. You can follow Cal football on Snapchat to get behind-the-scenes videos or get high-production value videos from their Facebook page. These didn't exist in the past.

I think there are several things going on. 1) There seems to be a lot of blame on students but it's probably more the fault of the general Cal fan population (or lack thereof). Cal has been a down team for the past 5 years. When I speak to other, older fans they've chosen to spend their weekends with their kids or running errands.

2) There's a possibility that the student make up is less oriented towards (American) sports. Numbers show we've significantly increased enrollment for international and, I believe, out of state. Also, let's face it. Your average Cal student is a nerd and cares less for sports. And this is becoming more of an issue as Berkeley becomes more and more competitive every year.

3) I think there's a lag between success and the fan base showing up. Your casual fan probably doesn't even know we're 5-0. Once we have a strong season, and the media really picks up on it then it'll be a part of people's conversations and reach the general pop.