golden sloth said:

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For the record, student attendance at games isn't a 'Cal' issue, this is a nation-wide issue and impacts everyone from Alabama to Michigan to Little Sisters of the Poor.

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And a lot of it has to do with the third rail that 71Bear raised. Kids don't grow up going to games as much as they used to. A lot of factors in that, some mentioned in this thread, some not, but it is the way it is.

It is a good idea to live into that reality and do things like have players connecting personally with students, so good for the coaching staff in getting the players to do that.

Cal8285 said:

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golden sloth said:

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For the record, student attendance at games isn't a 'Cal' issue, this is a nation-wide issue and impacts everyone from Alabama to Michigan to Little Sisters of the Poor.

---

And a lot of it has to do with the third rail that 71Bear raised. Kids don't grow up going to games as much as they used to. A lot of factors in that, some mentioned in this thread, some not, but it is the way it is.

It is a good idea to live into that reality and do things like have players connecting personally with students, so good for the coaching staff in getting the players to do that.

---

I'd also point out that Cal eliminated the Family Section in the mid 2000's. Reap what you sow.

Times have changed, agree with your general assessment...but I don't think things have changed that much. The majority of students at Cal were always super-focused on school work. Certainly the current costs and more competitive admissions changed things but the core of Cal students just aren't into FB.

Back in the day who went to games? The vast majority of Cal students didn't go or care but it was easy back then, Cal FB generally sucked. I went to a couple games but frankly there were way better things to do as a student.

As an old fcck alum, going to a FB game is nice pastime and an excuse to go to campus.

My phone has never worked well in the stadium, especially when there is a large crowd.

ColoradoBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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You put a good team on the field, and start games at 12:30 on Saturdays, and you have no problem packing the student section. Neither of these has been the case in a long, long time.

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Have to guess 2x the number of students would be there at kick (and far more overall) for a 3-4pm start as opposed to a 1230pm start. It's the old guys who like 1230pm starts.

---

Times and days of games vary too much to make any long range plans. In the good old days we knew that all home games were at 1pm (later 12:30 pm) on Saturdays.
As a student You could plan what time to tailgate before and after the game what time to arrive at CMS. What time to plan for dinner (usually on or around campus).
Now no plans can be made until the week before the game. Or at best 2 weeks before the game.
And often the game time precludes post game activities

Overall IMO predictably is more important than start time (assuming no start later than 3 pm)

PtownBear1 said:

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Because millenials are lame. From my experience, they generally don't like sports, being outside, or spending money.

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I understand why you might think that (the stereotypical doughy video-gaming nerd), but I disagree. I'd say they don't like watching sports, but many do like participating. As kids, they didn't play pick-up baseball or football in the street like we did, but played (thanks to their parents' $$) a much wider variety of organized sports (volleyball, soccer, lacrosse) well into high school and many would rather continue that (intramural or club level in college) than sit for four hours at a football game. I say this based on having two millenial sons in the Bay Area and knowing/observing a lot of their friends.

I do agree with you on the spending money, though. Many don't understand the concept of deferred gratification, but you could say the same for us baby-boomers.

It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

CalBearinLA said:

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It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

---

Another Bear said:

---

Times have changed, agree with your general assessment...but I don't think things have changed that much. The majority of students at Cal were always super-focused on school work. Certainly the current costs and more competitive admissions changed things but the core of Cal students just aren't into FB.

Back in the day who went to games? The vast majority of Cal students didn't go or care but it was easy back then, Cal FB generally sucked. I went to a couple games but frankly there were way better things to do as a student.

As an old fcck alum, going to a FB game is nice pastime and an excuse to go to campus.

---

I wonder how many other posters here barely went to Cal games as a student.

GivemTheAxe said:

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ColoradoBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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You put a good team on the field, and start games at 12:30 on Saturdays, and you have no problem packing the student section. Neither of these has been the case in a long, long time.

---

Have to guess 2x the number of students would be there at kick (and far more overall) for a 3-4pm start as opposed to a 1230pm start. It's the old guys who like 1230pm starts.

---

Times and days of games vary too much to make any long range plans. In the good old days we knew that all home games were at 1pm (later 12:30 pm) on Saturdays.
As a student You could plan what time to tailgate before and after the game what time to arrive at CMS. What time to plan for dinner (usually on or around campus).
Now no plans can be made until the week before the game. Or at best 2 weeks before the game.
And often the game time precludes post game activities

Overall IMO predictably is more important than start time (assuming no start later than 3 pm)

---

When I was a student, the word "plan" was a little-used part of my vocabulary. Also, students never "tailgated" because we didn't drive to the games. We rolled out of bed, brushed our teeth to get rid of the cotton-mouth from drinking too much Olde English 800 the night before, grabbed bowl of cereal and/or a beer, and walked up College/Hearst/etc. Ah, those were the days!

OaktownBear said:

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SFCityBear said:

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PtownBear1 said:

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Because millenials are lame. From my experience, they generally don't like sports, being outside, or spending money.

---

Going to a game would cost money, and it would be a distraction from what they like to do, which is play with their cell phones. They can get more phone by sitting at home on a couch than they can get at a game. And if they can't get the Cal game on their phone, it is not worth seeing.

---

There is a reason they are called mobile phones. They are mobile. Believe it or not they work at the stadium.

Millenials are more hard working than their parents and their grandparents. They party less, drink less, use drugs less, etc. They tend to like to do rather than watch others do. They study harder. The world today also requires that they grow up much earlier, working their asses off to get into colleges that were much easier for their parents to get into, and preparing for a job market that requires more and more education.

As for phone usage, pretty much any generation that grew up with computer technology uses phones a ton, and that is anyone about mid fifties or younger. 98% of 18-24 year olds have smart phones. 97% of 25-34 year olds. 96% of 35-44 year olds. 89% of 45-54 year olds. 80% of 55-64 year olds.

---

Yeah this is pretty much right.

Back in the day, I used to describe cal kids as the cool kids who just happened to be super smart v. furd kids who never got invited to the fri night parties so they had nothing else to do except study/play their violin or play d&d in their parents' basement.

But in this day and age when it's just so incredibly hard to get into college, sadly, there is simply no real difference between cal and furd kids anymore. Both student bodies are overachieving nerds (I say that with as much affection as possible)

Remember back in the tedford days when we used to get mad that furd students were so indifferent towards the rivalry? Well....

I don't blame the current students. But whats important now is that the cal admin realizes that sports is simply not as important to the student body anymore so they need to make every effort to get students involved. Free tickets for freshman is the least they can do

Needed two edits for that one? Nice try bud

wifeisafurd said:

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GoCal80 said:

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Yesterday was move-in day for the dorms at Cal and the football team was there greeting students and helping them move into their rooms to try to drum up attendance at games.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Cal-football-players-trying-to-get-peers-to-go-to-13156356.php

Back when I was a student in the 70s students arrived early for games to get good seats and the student section was always packed. Now football games are less well attended by students and they seem to mostly arrive after the kickoff, sometime during the first quarter. I've pondered why there is less interest these days by students but am not really sure I understand the reasons. Winning and having exciting "star" players would help get some students back, but I suspect there is more going on - perhaps there is more stress related to competition for jobs and positions in graduate programs and students are less willing to spend an entire afternoon/evening at a game?

---

My guess is some of this is on all the rules (or enforcement of rules) that didn't exist in the '70s and the technology. Now no drinking is actually enforced (not to forget the breathalyzer cr@p from the past), no smoking anything, no holding seats, zero tolerance of any behavior, and anything else possible to stamp out fun.

Now with every football game on TV, and TV's that are insanely sharp, why bother when you can stay in frat, dorm, or other living situation, pop a beer or whatever, watch the game, sit wherever you want, can say or scream whatever you want, have a party, not have to stand in a certain seat, all for free. And if you live a drive off campus in the expensive housing environment, why would you ever come to campus for a game with the lack of parking and traffic control?

---

Great post. I've thought and said the same thing. Are they still doing the Breathalyzer? More fun to hang out on Greek row and party than go to game with all the rule enforcement.

okaydo said:

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Another Bear said:

---

Times have changed, agree with your general assessment...but I don't think things have changed that much. The majority of students at Cal were always super-focused on school work. Certainly the current costs and more competitive admissions changed things but the core of Cal students just aren't into FB.

Back in the day who went to games? The vast majority of Cal students didn't go or care but it was easy back then, Cal FB generally sucked. I went to a couple games but frankly there were way better things to do as a student.

As an old fcck alum, going to a FB game is nice pastime and an excuse to go to campus.

---

I wonder how many other posters here barely went to Cal games as a student.

---

I went to two games as a student. Right now, I think of it as a wasted opportunity as I would totally tell my younger self to join rally com and hang out with people outside of my major. Unfortunately, at the time I was too tied up with school work or other activities (though, really that was probably BS and I just wasn't efficient with my time).

This is a bit of an aside, but I found this article tangentially related, the article's subject is a bit of a rant piece about how high school and college kids should not be designated as millenials and seeks out to find a new term:

Quote:

---

But there are already people trying to come up with a solution to this very problem. I talk to a lot of people in the TV industry, and those who work for networks aimed at kids have been thinking about how to attract these younger viewers for more than a decade now. And when I spoke to some folks at Cartoon Network a few years ago for a different story, they used a term that, I think, defines this new generation just about perfectly.

Cartoon Network has come to define the generation just entering college and the workplace in terms of what might be the most defining element of its relationship to technology. Having grown up with multiple screens, these kids are really, really, really good at dividing their attention among multiple sources. They can be looking at a phone, watching a TV, poking away at homework, and listening to a parent tell them to take out the trash all at the same time, while mostly keeping all of that information straight.

As such, the network dubbed this generation the "plurals."

I like that term both because it describes something fundamental about the post-millennial generation a love of lots of different sources of information streaming at once and because it sounds a little like a post-apocalyptic street gang. (I would also accept "the multiples," if you think "plurals" sounds too sinister.)

---

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17686668/millennials-explained

Football games don't provide the multiple experiences the plurals are used to at any given time. It does make me wonder what they do during sex, bake some cookies? (I'd love it if my girlfriend could pull that off)

Dlc83 said:

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This is a nationwide issue and specifically an issue at UNC. If the students show up if will be before halftime and they'll leave by the 4th quarter.

Today's students/millennials don't have the patience to sit outside in a stadium for 3+ hours to watch a game with optimum WiFi service for their phones. For the reasons discussed, live sports just doesn't have the same cashe unless it's a special event. The student issue is now starting to impact the SEC.

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Are you guys experiencing waning support with b-ball as well?

I'm curious whether winning cures all

Or maybe millennials just dig b-ball more cause it's shorter/faster paced

Agree totally

CalBearinLA said:

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Needed two edits for that one? Nice try bud

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Anal retentive enough to even notice that, son?

ColoradoBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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You put a good team on the field, and start games at 12:30 on Saturdays, and you have no problem packing the student section. Neither of these has been the case in a long, long time.

---

Have to guess 2x the number of students would be there at kick (and far more overall) for a 3-4pm start as opposed to a 1230pm start. It's the old guys who like 1230pm starts.

---

Late afternoon starts are the best!

bearister said:

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CalBearinLA said:

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It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

---

---

Thank you, bearister. You perfectly captured my feelings every time I hear yet another self centered old boomer complain because the world has passed them by and millennials don't want to live their lives exactly like boomers did (or claim they did)

Looperbear said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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GoCal80 said:

---

Yesterday was move-in day for the dorms at Cal and the football team was there greeting students and helping them move into their rooms to try to drum up attendance at games.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Cal-football-players-trying-to-get-peers-to-go-to-13156356.php

Back when I was a student in the 70s students arrived early for games to get good seats and the student section was always packed. Now football games are less well attended by students and they seem to mostly arrive after the kickoff, sometime during the first quarter. I've pondered why there is less interest these days by students but am not really sure I understand the reasons. Winning and having exciting "star" players would help get some students back, but I suspect there is more going on - perhaps there is more stress related to competition for jobs and positions in graduate programs and students are less willing to spend an entire afternoon/evening at a game?

---

My guess is some of this is on all the rules (or enforcement of rules) that didn't exist in the '70s and the technology. Now no drinking is actually enforced (not to forget the breathalyzer cr@p from the past), no smoking anything, no holding seats, zero tolerance of any behavior, and anything else possible to stamp out fun.

Now with every football game on TV, and TV's that are insanely sharp, why bother when you can stay in frat, dorm, or other living situation, pop a beer or whatever, watch the game, sit wherever you want, can say or scream whatever you want, have a party, not have to stand in a certain seat, all for free. And if you live a drive off campus in the expensive housing environment, why would you ever come to campus for a game with the lack of parking and traffic control?

---

Great post. I've thought and said the same thing. Are they still doing the Breathalyzer? More fun to hang out on Greek row and party than go to game with all the rule enforcement.

---

In the 70's very few games were on TV. You either went to the game or had to listen to Starky.

ducky23 said:

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OaktownBear said:

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SFCityBear said:

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PtownBear1 said:

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Because millenials are lame. From my experience, they generally don't like sports, being outside, or spending money.

---

Going to a game would cost money, and it would be a distraction from what they like to do, which is play with their cell phones. They can get more phone by sitting at home on a couch than they can get at a game. And if they can't get the Cal game on their phone, it is not worth seeing.

---

There is a reason they are called mobile phones. They are mobile. Believe it or not they work at the stadium.

Millenials are more hard working than their parents and their grandparents. They party less, drink less, use drugs less, etc. They tend to like to do rather than watch others do. They study harder. The world today also requires that they grow up much earlier, working their asses off to get into colleges that were much easier for their parents to get into, and preparing for a job market that requires more and more education.

As for phone usage, pretty much any generation that grew up with computer technology uses phones a ton, and that is anyone about mid fifties or younger. 98% of 18-24 year olds have smart phones. 97% of 25-34 year olds. 96% of 35-44 year olds. 89% of 45-54 year olds. 80% of 55-64 year olds.

---

Yeah this is pretty much right.

Back in the day, I used to describe cal kids as the cool kids who just happened to be super smart v. furd kids who never got invited to the fri night parties so they had nothing else to do except study/play their violin or play d&d in their parents' basement.

But in this day and age when it's just so incredibly hard to get into college, sadly, there is simply no real difference between cal and furd kids anymore. Both student bodies are overachieving nerds (I say that with as much affection as possible)

Remember back in the tedford days when we used to get mad that furd students were so indifferent towards the rivalry? Well....

I don't blame the current students. But whats important now is that the cal admin realizes that sports is simply not as important to the student body anymore so they need to make every effort to get students involved. Free tickets for freshman is the least they can do

---

Heard Ray Ratto this morning talking about the A's attendance and he basically said, yes, the A's are amazing right now and are really fun to watch. But it isn't the job of the fans to show up. It is the job of the organization to get them to show up.

Students don't have to like football. There is no reason they have to like what we liked. Many of us are from a generation that let a storied track and field program become irrelevant due to apathy. Maybe we should all apologize to SFCITY and helltopay for that.

It's up to Cal to figure out a way to market it's revenue sports. Frankly, if today's students would rather join the hiking club, or kayak, or do online gaming, fine by me. It's their lives.

OaktownBear said:

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bearister said:

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CalBearinLA said:

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It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

---

---

Thank you, bearister. You perfectly captured my feelings every time I hear yet another self centered old boomer complain because the world has passed them by and millennials don't want to live their lives exactly like boomers did (or claim they did)

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Yep, perfect interpretation of my intent. Them Millennials. True Grit and impressive trophy displays.

CalBearinLA said:

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It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

---

I could not agree more! I could not be more impressed by the work my kiddo, her boyfriend and their friends are doing. They are invested in making things better for all the kids they work with, in particular, those who came to the US under very trying circumstances.

yes (i am being serious). the people you want going to the games are the students who party and are social. they need to have a good 4/5 hour pregame at the frats. 3 pm is best.

the city of berkeley and cal chose to basically kill the frat game day scene and ucpd's gestapo unit pulls kids out of line if they have the scent of one coors light on their breath.

cal vs tennessee was one of the best days of my college life, that vibe died in berkeley (or really the year we played in sf)

cal FB/BB student season tix promo ... free Cal swag ...

HoopDreams said:

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cal FB/BB student season tix promo ... free Cal swag ...

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#earnit really? Who put Tom Hanks in charge of our marketing?

dajo9 said:

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wifeisafurd said:

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bearister said:

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They are studying. I was expanding my consciousness before the game, at the game and after the game. Sunday morning, OUCH!

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I'm willing to admit Cal is more competitive than when we went to school, and there is zero tolerance for a lot of stuff that occurred back when we went to school. Also, I think '71 has a point about demographics.

That said, the school across the Bay has similar issues and manages to get a great student turn out (the caption for their OP would be where are all the alums?). So winning clearly does help get students out.

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Winning definitely affects things but my anecdote is the exact opposite. While visiting my Stanford alum cousin this week he told me his Stanford student son doesn't go to games. When he goes up to visit his son indulges him with a bunch of free, unused student tickets so he gets to go for free and yave great seats.

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The students sit in the end zone, which may be great seats for your cousin. The students typically fill up their corner (maybe its really parents) once school is in session. Since they start later, there typically is not many students at the first two games, but then again with SC the second game, this year may be an exception.

71Bear said:

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CalBearinLA said:

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It's easy to hate on millenials, as a fair number of people here want to do...but my sister is currently a sophomore at Cal and simply doesn't have the time to attend sporting events. She locked down volunteer jobs and internships during her freshman year, which is something I'm sure most of you Old Blues did not do in the 70's and 80's. Say what you want about them not being able to wake up at 12:30 or such, but a good number of them do hustle and are more career driven. Money is also a big issue, so free tickets would definitely help. The current times are not like when most of you were in college, when gasoline cost under 50 cents.

---

I could not agree more! I could not be more impressed by the work my kiddo, her boyfriend and their friends are doing. They are invested in making things better for all the kids they work with, in particular, those who came to the US under very trying circumstances.

---

Since we are comparing students way back when we were in college to students today, I want to throw in my 2 cents.
Emwhen I was at Cal, Cal students were committed and studied hard. Many like myself also had part time jobs to help pay for housing and food and books. (Yes things were cheaper back then, but we were paid comparable peanuts in part time jobs.)
Many were also spending lots of time trying to save the world (everything from planning and participating in student demonstrations to teaching kids in the impoverished parts of the Bay Area.
And yes a number of those also went to FB games.
Back then the here were about 15,000 under grads. In 2017 there were 30,000 Cal under grads.
How many Cal students does it take to fill the student section. I posit that there are more than enough students to fill the student section even taking into account the large number of students who are too busy studying or working or preoccupied with other activities.
It is up to the university and the AD to motivate them to get to the games. There have been many good suggestions posted on this thread. Maybe the powers that be will follow up on many of them.

okaydo said:

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Another Bear said:

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Times have changed, agree with your general assessment...but I don't think things have changed that much. The majority of students at Cal were always super-focused on school work. Certainly the current costs and more competitive admissions changed things but the core of Cal students just aren't into FB.

Back in the day who went to games? The vast majority of Cal students didn't go or care but it was easy back then, Cal FB generally sucked. I went to a couple games but frankly there were way better things to do as a student.

As an old fcck alum, going to a FB game is nice pastime and an excuse to go to campus.

---

I wonder how many other posters here barely went to Cal games as a student.

---

A lot.

socaliganbear said:

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okaydo said:

---

Another Bear said:

---

Times have changed, agree with your general assessment...but I don't think things have changed that much. The majority of students at Cal were always super-focused on school work. Certainly the current costs and more competitive admissions changed things but the core of Cal students just aren't into FB.

Back in the day who went to games? The vast majority of Cal students didn't go or care but it was easy back then, Cal FB generally sucked. I went to a couple games but frankly there were way better things to do as a student.

As an old fcck alum, going to a FB game is nice pastime and an excuse to go to campus.

---

I wonder how many other posters here barely went to Cal games as a student.

---

A lot.

---

I went to Cal under 4 years of Holmoe, so I have plenty of excuses.

Yet my first year was Mariucci, so I have no excuse.

One of my first remembrances of freshman year was me walking up Bancroft on a Saturday night to find a cafe to study for a midterm, while thousands of students were coming down the middle of the street celebrating a victory.

But I always got the impression from BI that many here were ingrained into Cal football fandom as babies.

flounder said:

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yes (i am being serious). the people you want going to the games are the students who party and are social. they need to have a good 4/5 hour pregame at the frats. 3 pm is best.

the city of berkeley and cal chose to basically kill the frat game day scene and ucpd's gestapo unit pulls kids out of line if they have the scent of one coors light on their breath.

cal vs tennessee was one of the best days of my college life, that vibe died in berkeley (or really the year we played in sf)

---

I think a lot of this stems from suburban paranoia and the parents of the students pushing ever increasing requirements on to the school to take over the helicopter parent role and babysit their kids. In their eyes the school is somehow responsible for every bad decision one of their students make, because you know, a 19 year-old making a bad decision never happened in their parents' day and age.

CaliforniaEternal said:

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GoCal80 said:

---

Yesterday was move-in day for the dorms at Cal and the football team was there greeting students and helping them move into their rooms to try to drum up attendance at games.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Cal-football-players-trying-to-get-peers-to-go-to-13156356.php

Back when I was a student in the 70s students arrived early for games to get good seats and the student section was always packed. Now football games are less well attended by students and they seem to mostly arrive after the kickoff, sometime during the first quarter. I've pondered why there is less interest these days by students but am not really sure I understand the reasons. Winning and having exciting "star" players would help get some students back, but I suspect there is more going on - perhaps there is more stress related to competition for jobs and positions in graduate programs and students are less willing to spend an entire afternoon/evening at a game?

---

I'm not sure why you think student attendance was higher in the 70s. When you look at pictures or videos from old games, from the mid-60's on, the student section is rarely full except for the Big Game.

It doesn't take long to figure out why student attendance has been declining and there are multiple reasons.

The big one is the program has been awful now for close to a decade. From 2004-2007, the student section was packed because the team was good and it built upon multiple successful seasons to generate interest.

Of course there are other reasons too like more international students who don't have any knowledge of football (have we seen any effort to bring in these potential fans?), lack of upgrades to the student section (porta-potties, no concourse built under the east side for concessions, no beer sales, bad wireless signal/no wifi, etc...)

---

Exactly, people have selective memories. Student attendance in the 60's, 70's and 80's was very often very low. The folks that remember differently have romanticized the past.

One thing to consider when talking about 'changing demographics' and 'international students' is that the undergraduate student population has grown substantially since the early 2000's. There are now 30k+ undergraduates. There used to be around 20k. So even if zero of the international students go to games, there are still many more students as potential fans than there were before.

Finally found a site with Cal enrollment stats by year going back to 1992:
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/fall-enrollment-headcounts

Compared to 1999, there are 3k more resident slots, 2.2k more non resident domestic slots, and 2.8k more international slots (incoming 2017).

Student section was full 2004-2008. I believe it can be again. Not sure full was ever the normal in bad years though.

1979-1982 the Student section was pretty full .The stadium was not .No bowl games. One winning season. The Play. Games were what many of us did .Berkeley was not that busy on Saturdays. If you were within a mile of campus, the game was a likely choice I didn't have a car at school, season rooter tickets were like thirty bucks Cheap entertainment But that was 35 years ago