Count me in for also funding free student tickets. I think a solution to all these problems would making attendance free for the first ______ number of students who show up. This could also partially solve the problem of students not getting to their seats until half way through the second quarter. Instead of charging them a nominal 5/10 dollar fee just incentivize getting to games earlier. After _____ number of students charge something like 5/10 bucks a seat.

WhatABonanza said:

---

Some data about student sections in the Pac-12 may be useful...

Season ticket prices for the 2016 season:

UCLA - $129
Washington - $135
Washington State - $149
Arizona - $175
USC - $185
Oregon - $367 (for the Pit Crew)

I'm assuming those schools had student attendance rates that we would be happy with - and they didn't give away tickets.

I don't think the low attendance is solely about ticket prices. I was a season ticket holder for 20+ years but haven't had them for the last two. The reasons aren't cost. My reasons: I didn't like not being able to plan ahead because of late kickoff time announcements, and my interest in football is waning based on concussion issues. I think there are many reasons for attendance decline - I just don't know how big a role season ticket prices play.

I love the idea of incentives to get them there on time. And I'd like to keep the prices down. But I don't think charging students to show up is automatically a ridiculous idea, or dumb, or shortsighted.

---

There's a long list of programs that haven't decimated their student fan base. Those teams can charge and expect a decent turnout. We are not one of those teams. While we attempt to piece the base back together, we should remove every obstacle possible. Then we can revisit the issue once we're winning and the students are back.

socaliganbear said:

---

WhatABonanza said:

---

Some data about student sections in the Pac-12 may be useful...

Season ticket prices for the 2016 season:

UCLA - $129
Washington - $135
Washington State - $149
Arizona - $175
USC - $185
Oregon - $367 (for the Pit Crew)

I'm assuming those schools had student attendance rates that we would be happy with - and they didn't give away tickets.

I don't think the low attendance is solely about ticket prices. I was a season ticket holder for 20+ years but haven't had them for the last two. The reasons aren't cost. My reasons: I didn't like not being able to plan ahead because of late kickoff time announcements, and my interest in football is waning based on concussion issues. I think there are many reasons for attendance decline - I just don't know how big a role season ticket prices play.

I love the idea of incentives to get them there on time. And I'd like to keep the prices down. But I don't think charging students to show up is automatically a ridiculous idea, or dumb, or shortsighted.

---

There's a long list of programs that haven't decimated their student fan base. Those teams can charge and expect a decent turnout. We are not one of those teams. While we attempt to piece the base back together, we should remove every obstacle possible. Then we can revisit the issue once we're winning and the students are back.

---

Bingo. Plus some of those programs cited have very bad student attendance rates (UCLA in particular). It's incorrect to say we want to replicate their results.

In full agreement with this post. I also highly doubt the $125/year is depressing attendance. Michigan students currently pay $175 football, $150 hockey, $175 MBB. Both my kids go to Boston College where the setup is like I had at Cal with an AP pass. At BC that's $199/year.

A nominal fee makes sense to me. That said, I'm cool with giving freshmen free access to start the tradition but I don't believe the $125 is a meaningful impediment.

I guess another question or questions could be is
How many students can't afford this amount??

How many can afford it and refuse/rather not go ?

Where is that line and how much of a factor/role is it playing?

What's the problem?

HoopDreams said:

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I posted this on insider board from consulting report. I think it's a great idea. Include small fee in all student registrations... if people object to free, charge $2 for football and basketball and $1 or free for other sports (some already free):


Student Fees: Although likely to be controversial, an exploration of a student fee assessment for Intercollegiate Athletics may be worth examining. The fee would allow students free access to all home athletics events and is a common practice among many Division I institutions across the nation.

At Cal, fees are already assessed for various student activities not engaged by every undergraduate. With this precedent in place, a modest fee to support IA would contribute to Intercollegiate Athletics Department's total revenues and remove financial barriers that discourage students from attending athletic events.

As an example, a modest fee of $30-50 per student per year would generate between $900k and $1.5m in annual income. This is $500k to $1.1m more than was generated through student ticket sales in 2016-17. In return, students would receive free access to all home athletics events.

In addition to investing students in financially supporting IA, the goal would be to increase student attendance and to improve the gameday experience with all of the ancillary bene ts that go with it (e.g. home field advantage, student-body engagement, entertainment, etc.)

---

The students already pay a mandatory fee to support IA, which makes charging them even more for tickets WEAK! Collectively, students one of the biggest supporters of IA. A STRONG Athletic Director would give all students free tickets.

ncbears said:

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Well, in my day, mumbledy mumble years ago - we bought an AP (Athletic Privilege) card and took it to the football or basketball games where it was punched. The cards were not supposed to be transferable, but you could just give it to someone else. You couldn't really "sell" it, because you needed the card back for the next game. I think the only time we had actual tickets was for Big Game at Stanfurd.

---

You could totally copy the AP card... in fact you could copy / laminate your student id, copy and put a fake AP sticker on there so friends who didn't go to Cal could get in... or at least that's what a friend tells me....

I haven't read down the thread but I honestly don't think, as others have said, free is the answer. People definitely don't value things they get for free. Cal is selling a combined football / basketball student package for $125. This includes every football game including Big Game and every hoops game. That is a great deal something like $5 / game. And as others have said, students now have a nominal amount of skin in the game.

I can tell you from being on campus and having lots of fellow undergrads (HEY!) as friends, it's not the price of the season ticket that impacts students, it's the price of a game day ticket if you don't get season tickets. It's ridiculous. Like $50 (not taking into account secondary market but then you may not be able to get into the student section).

Also CAL simply HAS TO DO BETTER at game day experience and understanding the tastes of people, and the way people consume entertainment has changed.

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

Sebastabear said:

---

FuzzyWuzzy said:

---

Sebastabear said:

---

Ok, so I spoke with Cal and offered to anchor a fund to help pay/defray these student ticket costs. They were appreciative but said that they didn't feel like the free tickets to Freshmen experiment from a few years back was a success. They felt like Freshmen didn't show up in general and the ones who did come didn't value the experience since it was free. I pointed out that from my recollection the free ticket for Freshmen year also coincided with the height (real or perceived) of the "breathalyze the students" years and that they might want to try this experiment again. I also mentioned that there's a lot of daylight between $105 and $0 and maybe just heavily subsidizing these would have the desired effect.

Going to speak with Development about this again on Thursday and see if we can get something going here.

---

This wasn't the 1-12 season by chance, was it?

---

Ha. Yeah, I wondered the same thing, although I don't think so. Think it might have been right after it though.

---

I spoke to someone who worked at the ATO about 3 months ago on this same topic and got the same reply essentially: been there done that.
When I pressed him further about when that occurred I was given a vague answer: a few years ago.
Then I commented that the ATO should avoid any conclusion based upon lack of student attendance during The last two Tedford years and the first few Sonny years.
(I had a difficult time giving away extra tickets during those years to people who previously would snap them up. )
But I got a further non-committal answer.
So to me it appeared that the ATO had made up its mind and was not really interested in listening to fan criticism on this point. The people at the ATO have a story and they're sticking to it.

Attendance incentives AND free passes seems like a solid move for a school with a dwindling student base.

Cal Strong! said:

---

The students already pay a mandatory fee to support IA, which makes charging them even more for tickets WEAK! Collectively, students one of the biggest supporters of IA. A STRONG Athletic Director would give all students free tickets.

---

Wrong and weak. They pay a mandatory fee to support Rec Sports, NOT IA. The plan to charge students $30-50 per year to support IA is a new one that is being considered.

Also, not sure how you define "biggest supporters of IA." The student body is just under 40,000 and there are fewer than 3000 at basketball games.

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Fiat as a guy with his finger on the pulse of what the undergrads are thinking, what do you think the best approach is here? Is it having a drawing as you suggest, having the first couple thousand students get in free, or creating a fund to subsidize the tickets and take the price down from $105 to $50, for example? I think any of these could work, but I imagine some of them will have a harder time getting through the administration than others. I think that last one may be the most palatable and honestly easiest to implement .

I disagree. You never give away your product. Sell it cheap, fine. But people don't value things that are free. Personally, $125 for football and hoops tickets seems like a steal. Hell, students are almost certainly spending more than that on coffee and beers during the same time period. But I could see reducing the dollar amount and auto-charging it as a fee, as others have suggested.

Lots of things that are important to the student age group have been free for their entire lives and they are hooked on them. Think facebook, snapchat, the list is endless now. Yes free is valued. Whether Cal should go this way should be evidence based.

ryananderin said:

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In full agreement with this post. I also highly doubt the $125/year is depressing attendance. Michigan students currently pay $175 football, $150 hockey, $175 MBB. Both my kids go to Boston College where the setup is like I had at Cal with an AP pass. At BC that's $199/year.

A nominal fee makes sense to me. That said, I'm cool with giving freshmen free access to start the tradition but I don't believe the $125 is a meaningful impediment.

---

Since Cal has a very large number of Pell Grant recipients (awarded to students from low income families) $125 might be more of a stretch for students from low income families many of whom also have to supplement their resources with part time jobs. $125 is equal to what might be earned after taxes for 10-15 hours of work at minimum wage.

Sebastabear said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Fiat as a guy with his finger on the pulse of what the undergrads are thinking, what do you think the best approach is here? Is it having a drawing as you suggest, having the first couple thousand students get in free, or creating a fund to subsidize the tickets and take the price down from $105 to $50, for example? I think any of these could work, but I imagine some of them will have a harder time getting through the administration than others. I think that last one may be the most palatable and honestly easiest to implement .

---

Here is another suggestion. Many Cal fans became Cal fans after going to games regularly with people in the same living groups: dorms frats sororities.
I also recall a friend of mine telling me a few years ago that his daughter (a Johns Hopkins undergrad) became a rabid Cal fan after being admitted to Haas Business School.
The faculty adviser encouraged all new Haas admittees to attend Cal Football games and go out to dinner together afterwards in order to get to know one another better.

The results were amazing from the perspective of encouraging cohesion within the class.

Maybe living groups and professors could actively encourage attending FB games.

It would be a win-win-win scenario for the students for the school/living groups and for the Athletic Dept.

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

Big C said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

---

Because we need actual experience with major university fundraising and athletics. Not sure if he has that.

Mike Williams is also a passionate Cal (athlete!) alum and major donor.

Big C said:

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

---

You forgot the sarcasm font...

...right?

I'm an advocate of 'guerrilla' marketing.... some call it 'organic' but it's along the lines of what you're saying....?get some student groups to have a group outing... give them some incentive and even a little pub at games ... 'beta alpha house is in the Haas!' Make it the cool place to be

I played basketball with a cal pitcher that graduated last year and we got talking after the games. He told me about playing baseball and I asked if he was going to the basketball game. He said no, and that he never really attended other sports while at Cal. He said his coaches didn't organize any events where the team went as a group, but that he wish they did

Also clubs, orgs, teams, houses are always looking for ways to promote their orgs, and have fun events for their members. Getting those groups to a game won't increase the attendance by itself, but hopefully you introduce the sport to a few that return, and maybe even become life long cal fans

GivemTheAxe said:

---

Sebastabear said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Fiat as a guy with his finger on the pulse of what the undergrads are thinking, what do you think the best approach is here? Is it having a drawing as you suggest, having the first couple thousand students get in free, or creating a fund to subsidize the tickets and take the price down from $105 to $50, for example? I think any of these could work, but I imagine some of them will have a harder time getting through the administration than others. I think that last one may be the most palatable and honestly easiest to implement .

---

Here is another suggestion. Many Cal fans became Cal fans after going to games regularly with people in the same living groups: dorms frats sororities.
I also recall a friend of mine telling me a few years ago that his daughter (a Johns Hopkins undergrad) became a rabid Cal fan after being admitted to Haas Business School.
The faculty adviser encouraged all new Haas admittees to attend Cal Football games and go out to dinner together afterwards in order to get to know one another better.

The results were amazing from the perspective of encouraging cohesion within the class.

Maybe living groups and professors could actively encourage attending FB games.

It would be a win-win-win scenario for the students for the school/living groups and for the Athletic Dept.

---

socaliganbear said:

---

Big C said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

---

Because we need actual experience with major university fundraising and athletics. Not sure if he has that.

Mike Williams is also a passionate Cal (athlete!) alum and major donor.

---

Mike Williams loves Cal and brought a financial background, but he was lacking in other areas.

"Xultaif" loves Cal and has the people/leadership skills. What's he been doing from 1992-1997? He must've picked up a little knowledge/wisdom. What doesn't he know about university fundraising and athletics that he can't figure out? It's not rocket science.

My question is, can he identify and attract the right football and basketball coaches? I don't know the answer to that, but I know the last few ADs weren't all that good at it.

iwantwinners said:

---

Big C said:

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

---

You forgot the sarcasm font...

...right?

---

People that know me have noted that everything I say is somewhere between 10-90% sarcastic and the trick is to figure out the percentage for each case. This time -- I'll let it slip out -- it's somewhere closer to 10%.

tequila4kapp said:

---

I disagree. You never give away your product. Sell it cheap, fine. But people don't value things that are free. Personally, $125 for football and hoops tickets seems like a steal. Hell, students are almost certainly spending more than that on coffee and beers during the same time period. But I could see reducing the dollar amount and auto-charging it as a fee, as others have suggested.

---

There is already a fee. ASUC charges students every year and gives that money to IA.

ASUC is one of the largest donors to IA. Students deserve tickets in exchange for the money they give IA.

HoopDreams said:

---

I'm an advocate of 'guerrilla' marketing.... some call it 'organic' but it's along the lines of what you're saying....?get some student groups to have a group outing... give them some incentive and even a little pub at games ... 'beta alpha house is in the Haas!' Make it the cool place to be

I played basketball with a cal pitcher that graduated last year and we got talking after the games. He told me about playing baseball and I asked if he was going to the basketball game. He said no, and that he never really attended other sports while at Cal. He said his coaches didn't organize any events where the team went as a group, but that he wish they did

Also clubs, orgs, teams, houses are always looking for ways to promote their orgs, and have fun events for their members. Getting those groups to a game won't increase the attendance by itself, but hopefully you introduce the sport to a few that return, and maybe even become life long cal fans

GivemTheAxe said:

---

Sebastabear said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Fiat as a guy with his finger on the pulse of what the undergrads are thinking, what do you think the best approach is here? Is it having a drawing as you suggest, having the first couple thousand students get in free, or creating a fund to subsidize the tickets and take the price down from $105 to $50, for example? I think any of these could work, but I imagine some of them will have a harder time getting through the administration than others. I think that last one may be the most palatable and honestly easiest to implement .

---

Here is another suggestion. Many Cal fans became Cal fans after going to games regularly with people in the same living groups: dorms frats sororities.
I also recall a friend of mine telling me a few years ago that his daughter (a Johns Hopkins undergrad) became a rabid Cal fan after being admitted to Haas Business School.
The faculty adviser encouraged all new Haas admittees to attend Cal Football games and go out to dinner together afterwards in order to get to know one another better.

The results were amazing from the perspective of encouraging cohesion within the class.

Maybe living groups and professors could actively encourage attending FB games.

It would be a win-win-win scenario for the students for the school/living groups and for the Athletic Dept.

---

---

"Guerilla marketing" ... I love it.
Let's make going to Cal games the "Berkeley" thing to do.

Cal Strong! said:

---

tequila4kapp said:

---

I disagree. You never give away your product. Sell it cheap, fine. But people don't value things that are free. Personally, $125 for football and hoops tickets seems like a steal. Hell, students are almost certainly spending more than that on coffee and beers during the same time period. But I could see reducing the dollar amount and auto-charging it as a fee, as others have suggested.

---

There is already a fee. ASUC charges students every year and gives that money to IA.

ASUC is one of the largest donors to IA. Students deserve tickets in exchange for the money they give IA.

---

What are you even talking about? ASUC does not donate money to athletics. It has not changed since the last time you posted about a bunch of nonsense on the topic.

Look at the budget here:

https://asuc.org/student-orgs/

ASUC's budget is tiny. They get ~$27 per student from campus fees and profits from things like the student store.


Posting fake news, WEAK.

Changing your handle because your old one gained a bad rep: STRONG!

Big C said:

---

socaliganbear said:

---

Big C said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

---

Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

---

Because we need actual experience with major university fundraising and athletics. Not sure if he has that.

Mike Williams is also a passionate Cal (athlete!) alum and major donor.

---

Mike Williams loves Cal and brought a financial background, but he was lacking in other areas.

"Xultaif" loves Cal and has the people/leadership skills. What's he been doing from 1992-1997? He must've picked up a little knowledge/wisdom. What doesn't he know about university fundraising and athletics that he can't figure out? It's not rocket science.

My question is, can he identify and attract the right football and basketball coaches? I don't know the answer to that, but I know the last few ADs weren't all that good at it.

---

Thought so. Sounds like we're about to make a solid choice who actually checks off several AD specific boxes.

Sebastabear said:

---

TheFiatLux said:

---

Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

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Fiat as a guy with his finger on the pulse of what the undergrads are thinking, what do you think the best approach is here? Is it having a drawing as you suggest, having the first couple thousand students get in free, or creating a fund to subsidize the tickets and take the price down from $105 to $50, for example? I think any of these could work, but I imagine some of them will have a harder time getting through the administration than others. I think that last one may be the most palatable and honestly easiest to implement .

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Thanks Sebastabear. From everything I hear, cost of a season ticket does not seem to be a factor in students' decision to not purchase tickets. Especially with the combo football / hoops package where it's basically $5 a game, that is simply not an issue. I never hear from my classmates or fellow students this being a reason. I do HEAR this tho - if they don't buy season tickets then the cost of an individual game is sky high (as in $40-$50 - that IS A LOT to a student). I get wanting to incentivize students to buy season tickets but that should not come vis-a-vis de-incentivizing them to buy tickets later should they have not done that. This isn't rocket science, we should be able to figure this balance out. But i believe making student tickets free or creating a fund to cover them is a solution that doesn't address the actual problem. So a lose / lose really.

The # 1 thing I hear from students is, particulary for night games, they have other things to do that night. And there is good reason for this. Many belong to fraternities, sororoities, social clubs, student groups etc. Most of these plan events on Saturday nights. Given the choice between going to a football game and one of these events students will quite understandably choose the events because these are organizations to which they belong and for which they have a stronger affinity. This is where the deletrious impact of TV with the random night games comes into play (just as it does for alumni and general community members). The students will go to night games IF they don't conflict with their events. But since these events are planned well in advance, the night games need to be done the same. If not, with the option of TV, they can go to the event and have the game playing on TV in the background should they so desire. On the west coast we simply do not have the same culture as the south or midwest.

Additionally, and I don't have the #s on this, I think many more students work today to cover their school bills (or parts of it). Hey, I do!!! :-) While they might not be working on the weekend, if they work during the week, that means the weekend is when they have to study. Honestly, I hear this from a lot of students. Also, students today are sooooo much more stressed about their grades. I can speak from experience on this. Back in the 80s and 90s yeah, everyone wanted to get good grades, but getting a B, hell getting a C (hell, Ds earn degress!!) wasn't the end of the world. Now it seems like it is. One of the reasons I think the universe has me back at Cal right now is to let my classmates know it's going to be OK... they can chill.. life works out (they do NOT get that at all). I hear from so many of them how much they appreciate it. But i don't think replicating Ken is a good strategy (scary actually) so that's not a long term solution.


So here is what I think (among other things):

• We simply have to make going to the games part of the student communal experience. The suggestion above about groups, Haas students, professors, etc, is wonderful. In order to do that we need to work with the student group on understanding their schedules, agendas and what not. Maybe one answer is incenting them to move normal social events to Friday night instead of Saturday night.
• We need to reach out to non-traditional targets to get them excited. International students, transfers, etc. Cal (the university not the athletic department) did a great job on this a couple of years ago when they hosted all international students to a special pre-season clinic hosted by Jared Goff and others to teach them American football. It was a brilliant idea. So of course we haven't done it since... But even earlier this year, once again, the University did that great world record human letter C thing in Memorial Stadium. GREAT idea. More of that.
• We do this in corporate America, but we need to almost bribe students. That is the idea of the threshold lottery. In a normal, set-prize, lottery you want fewer people involved because it increases your odds. But tying it to attendance threshold ensures people get other people to go and you can win. It does't have to be 5K, you can start with 3K (which would ensure the main section is full at teh very least) or 4K or whatever... but students understanding that hey if we can get others there we may win $1K (or more, whatever we decide) i think would be very effective.

Finally, and this is something different, pride and shame go hand in hand. On the same side, I think we need to start insisting that attendance #s are ACTUAL attendance for all schools in the conference. This does not just impact Cal by the way - Wazzu, OSU, UW Stanfurd, UCLA SC, ASU UofA - all have issues with attendance for last minute night games (and frankly games in general). We ALL know that the attendance # announced has no bearing on the real butts-in-seats #. SO making Larry Scott actually confront that, publicly, would be very powerful (but please don't get sidetracked with this last thought).

Anyway, attendance last year for football was abysmal. There is no getting around that. Basketball was even worse (but for more understandable reason). We have THE WORST marketing / leadership of any organization I have ever seen. I'm tired of being politic on that. It needs to change. This incompetence was overcome during the 2000s by our success on the field. It was on full display with disasterous impact furing the transition year at ATT and we really haven't recovered. We're in a free fall - there's simply no denying that. Tweaking around the edges won't work. Doing the same, just more of it and harder, won't work. We need a fundamental transformation. We'll see what happens.

Big C said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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Also, Cal needs to think out of the box on how to get students there, and of course preferably early.

I had offered a few years ago to fund this experiment. Have a threshold driven lottery for each game. Every game 5,000 students show up, 2 students (randomly) will win $1,000.

Why do it like that? because then that encourages students to get their friends to go since if you don't hit the 5,000 student threshold no one has a chance of winning. YOu'd have to publicize this, explain it a little, but we're smart people.

And I firmly believe once word gets out about the first couple $1,000 winners - JUST FOR SHOWING UP - it would generate excitement.

Even is this isn't the answer, at least be thinking about DIFFERENT ways to do thing.

And I'm still 100% willing to fund this. Sebast - you can match me and we can make it 5 students win each game or something like that. I'm down to meet with our development person, but they got to let us design so they don't f it up. But then again, I haven't got my college degree yet so not sure how qualified i am to offer ideas....

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Speaking of thinking outside the box, can anybody think of any legitimate reasons why FiatLux would not be a good candidate to be our next Athletic Director?

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I am most assuredly not qualified to be AD.

But what about to head marketing, pr? At one point in life I would have taken a significant pay cut to do that for Cal... Well, as it turns out, despite all of the "informal" work I have done for Cal, it has been communicated in no uncertain terms, I am not qualified to work for Cal Athletics at all, full non starter. Why? Because I do not have a degree. You see, the 25+ years I've spent in PR and Marketing for major companies including my current position as head of global communications for a 10,000 person international billion dollar company means nothing. But when in the next semester or so I finally get my classics degree, well then I will, at leats conceivably, have the credentials to at least be considered.

If i'm reading that i may think "that guy sounds bitter." You'd be about 1% right. 99% is me being disgusted knowing i'm not the only qualified person they, nose turned up, with the wave of a hand, have turned away. You see Cal Athletics doesn't understand there's a difference between being an elite organization, and an elitist organization. They seem more intent on the latter than the former.

Thanks for the thoughtful post. Some good ideas here.

I spoke with some senior folks at Cal last night and offered to help on some initiatives to get students at the game inforce and early. Bottom line is they were appreciative but they have other fish to fry. They are aware of the problem with student attendance but they actually view what they are doing this year as a new experiment to fix it and they want to see how it goes. I guess last year they charged like $100 for football and another $100 for basketball, so this is a significant discount to that on a combined basis (I did point out that if you were only interested in football it wasn't really a discount at all, but c'est la vie).

And WIAF if you are reading this, I talked to them as well about the need for better traffic control on game day. They promised to look into it. Cal is paying Berkeley for these services. The fact that the city isn't actually providing them is something apparently no one at Cal had previously noticed.

Sebastabear said:

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Thanks for the thoughtful post. Some good ideas here.

I spoke with some senior folks at Cal last night and offered to help on some initiatives to get students at the game inforce and early. Bottom line is they were appreciative but they have other fish to fry. They are aware of the problem with student attendance but they actually view what they are doing this year as a new experiment to fix it and they want to see how it goes. I guess last year they charged like $100 for football and another $100 for basketball, so this is a significant discount to that on a combined basis (I did point out that if you were only interested in football it wasn't really a discount at all, but c'est la vie).

And WIAF if you are reading this, I talked to them as well about the need for better traffic control on game day. They promised to look into it. Cal is paying Berkeley for these services. The fact that the city isn't actually providing them is something apparently no one at Cal had previously noticed.

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Depends on what they're paying for. The city does have traffic officers along Piedmont directing traffic. But that's not really the issue

Also, unless there's a major recruiting coup, tying football to basketball tickets won't really move the needle with students imo. Bball enthusiasm is dead.

ColoradoBear WEAK! Soft as baby poop . . . no know about ASUC student fees. Weak at posting . . . weak at finance . . . weak at slams. But Cal not weak. ColoradoWeak need to toughen up his thinking. Be more like Cal . . . less like baby poop.

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/09/the-v-o-i-c-e-initiative-in-the-context-of-student-fees-for-intercollegiate-athletics/

Cal Strong! said:

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ColoradoBear WEAK! Soft as baby poop . . . no know about ASUC student fees. Weak at posting . . . weak at finance . . . weak at slams. But Cal not weak. ColoradoWeak need to toughen up his thinking. Be more like Cal . . . less like baby poop.

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/09/the-v-o-i-c-e-initiative-in-the-context-of-student-fees-for-intercollegiate-athletics/

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Hi Duke!

Again the article you posted says nothing about the asuc paying anything (because they don't). Typical Duke misinformation.

The irony is that while they do have some cops on Piedmont, they actually route the traffic off of Piedmont onto College several blocks before the stadium. And on College they have no one. Well that's not technically true. They do actually have a few cops on college and Durant who sit there on the side and do nothing. We always laugh because we've sat at this intersection for 15 minutes and watched the cops hanging out on the sidewalk and watching the gridlock.

Not to derail this, but no other urban P5 school deals (or fails) to deal with its traffic problems on game day like this. The city of Berkeley dislikes cars in general and believes we should all be riding yaks or something to the games and it shows in how they manage traffic flow.

It all comes down to game day experience. I reiterated last night that someone from Cal really needs to take a comprehensive look at all these issues. Some of the worst stuff (late games, six day tv option cycle, etc.) may be outside of Cal's control in the near term, but other things aren't. Getting students to the games, fixing traffic, etc. are things they can and need to address.

Sebastabear said:

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Thanks for the thoughtful post. Some good ideas here.

I spoke with some senior folks at Cal last night and offered to help on some initiatives to get students at the game inforce and early. Bottom line is they were appreciative but they have other fish to fry. They are aware of the problem with student attendance but they actually view what they are doing this year as a new experiment to fix it and they want to see how it goes. I guess last year they charged like $100 for football and another $100 for basketball, so this is a significant discount to that on a combined basis (I did point out that if you were only interested in football it wasn't really a discount at all, but c'est la vie).

And WIAF if you are reading this, I talked to them as well about the need for better traffic control on game day. They promised to look into it. Cal is paying Berkeley for these services. The fact that the city isn't actually providing them is something apparently no one at Cal had previously noticed.

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I'm coming late to this, but I have some comments:

1. Cal is reaping what it sowed through its own greed. Cal used to sell out one end zone dirt cheap with Family Season tickets. Tickets for 2 adults and 3 kids for every home game except Stanford. Tons of families with kids running all around and it used to be the second loudest section. I grew up in the family section and as a result no one needed to sell me on the student ticket. I was the first one in the stadium the first game of my Freshman year. Literally, sitting on the 50 yard line doing homework long before game time waiting for my first game in the rooting section. My parents could not afford regular season tickets for all of us, so without the Family season ticket I may have been just another apathetic freshman. But then when Tedford started winning they realized they could charge full boat for those sections and never considered what would happen if we started losing again. Even more confounding is that they have not brought it back now that we have been losing for years and they have an empty stadium. This is even worse now because with the unknown game start times and night games, a family has no idea when they buy the tickets whether their kids can even go to most games. You do not want to buy like 30 full priced tickets over 6 games and then use 5. At minimum they should have a family section that allows on free kid per full adult ticket and discounted youth ticket after that. I will point out that there is not a single freshman at Cal today that grew up in the family section. That is a lot of kids who aren't predisposed to go to the game AND get their friends to go as well (as I did).

2. After they decided to squeeze everyone on ticket prices during the Tedford era, Cal lost sight of a concept that they used to understand. Season tickets in the high priced sections are ridiculously overpriced. Always have been. There is a good reason for that. Alums that buy those tickets are consciously or subconsciously viewing part of the purchase price as a charity. Without that understanding, Cal couldn't sell one damned ticket in those sections. What Cal used to understand is that you can't use that as a baseline to price tickets in the whole stadium. You need to charge market value for the cheap seats and get people in the stadium. The last few seasons, the A's have had some sort of plan for a monthly or season subscription at dirt cheap prices. (This year they have tickets in the "Treehouse" in left field for $149 for all 82 home games - there is a monthly price as well) Even the Giants sell standing room only tickets like that. Even better if you do what the A's do - get people into the stadium and then offer instant upgrades for sale. In any case, end zone seats are ridiculously priced.

3. Given that Cal did nothing to cultivate freshmen who want to go to games, and given that there are fewer students in this generation that see football as part of the college experience, I don't think the price is the big issue here. Frankly, I don't care if they charge or not. I think the issue is that students actually have to PLAN to go to games by buying (or if free, acquiring) the pass. You need to get kids that will decide to go to a game last minute. At a party and their friends are going and they want to tag a long. Get them into a game. No breathalyzer. No barrier to entry. Walk up, $20 sit down with their friends.(honestly, I'd make it $10, but Cal is too damned cheap to take a short term hit for long term benefit) They then want to go to the rest of the games - sell them a ticket with a pro rata reduction. If we are lucky enough to sell out the rooting section, offer end zone seats at the same price 30 minutes before game time unless and until all tickets in the stadium are sold out. I'd worry about that nice problem when we actually have it. But I think that more than the price, you guys are missing that it actually requires some planning and difficulty for students and that stops many from going.

Lots of great ideas in this thread.

I think it boils down to engaging students early. There needs to be a rally before the first football game that all freshman are strongly encouraged to attend. They should assign rally com members to each of the dorms to get new forming groups of friends to get excited about attending the games as a group bonding activity.

Social habits for students get established early and freshman have so many new things on their minds if the games aren't promoted to them early by the time the middle of the semester rolls around they already have conflicts for other social events.

I actually did not have a regular undergrad freshman experience. I was in the band so athletics attendance and passion for the teams was indoctrinated from the beginning. Hell they should make it a business opportunity. Issue affiliate referral codes to entrepenurial students and pay a kick back for every season pass sold.

Go Bears!