We win! That was refreshing! However, when the players weren't playing, yuk!

First of all, I have averaged 10+ games a season over the past few decades, so I daresay I know of what I speak. Non-basketball Haas was especially annoying tonight. A new low...

The crowd was tiny, almost embarrassingly so, but, hey, I get it: We're going to need to win back the fans.

EVERYTHING over the P.A. system was way too freaking loud. More so than normal. The music, the P.A. announcer, the stupid MC of promotions, everything. Take it down a notch, for goodness sakes!

The stupid promotions have reached a new low (but a new high in volume): They are lame and they are not the least bit relevant to the game or to Cal...

- the lengthy heads-or-tails promotion at half time? Why?

- Today is National Doughnut Day (???), so let's do a bunch of stuff about that, Again, why?

- While the Straw Hat Band is there, live, let's have the Cal Band play on-screen! What an idea! (what a stupid idea)

Non-stop, irrelevant crap throughout the halftime, all at an ear-splitting volume. The "host" guy, he is not incompetent, but he is overbearing and irrelevant. No offense to him personally, but I hope he goes away, fast. This is not nice, on my part, but I'd like to see him slapped around a little bit, as the next timeout promotion. (Okay, maybe not, on that last part. That would be mean.)

I could almost see myself not going to games at some point, because of all this stupid crap. I'm there for three reasons... 1) the basketball... 2) coming back to my Alma Mater and its traditions... and... 3) chatting with my friends. Number Two is being laid to waste and in such a (loud) way that it's hard to do Number Three.

But what do I know, compared to a few people in the Athletic Department who majored in Marketing? Heck, it would seem that the only two adjectives I know are "STUPID" and "IRRELEVANT".

+1

Volume WAS louder last night. They had ratcheted it back the last couple seasons, but it was too up again last night.

The coin toss was lame. I thought student section was OK, but not great in terms of numbers. The chairbacks were mostly empty - maybe 4000 fans after everyone trickled in.

But even that crowd made some noise during the second half run. Excitement is slowly sneaking back into the building IMHO.

Agree. I also think the pre-introduction video is about twice as long as it should be. I've never liked the guy who does the promotions and silly contests (someone said he's actually a UCLA grad; if so maybe he's doing this to punish Cal for rejecting him).

stu said:

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A nitpick: During play the stats are displayed at the corners of the overhead scoreboard but for some reason during timeouts that changes to useless information like the names of the teams. I'd think the best time to check the stats would be when the game is not being played.

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Also, again, the overhead scoreboard wasn't working until the 2nd half.

Replay today at 3 pm. Pac12 net

SFCityBear said:

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I agree with everything that has been said here.

Pre-game, halftime, and non-basketball time, the vibe was much too loud, uninteresting, boring, annoying, and had little to do with Cal or basketball.

What ever happened to the Epiphany Peanuts games with two elementary school teams playing each other? Now that was entertaining. You can't tell me there are no kids playing basketball in 3rd grade anymore.

Whatever happened to those promotions of a trip to Hawaii or something for the fan who could sink a shot from half court? If you can't find a sponsor for that, then how about a half court shot for a free season ticket, or tickets to the PAC12 tournament, or a meal for two at a Berkeley restaurant?

Or a 3-point shooting contest among two fans for free hot dogs, or a free throw contest for similar?

If there is no Straw Hat Band at the game due to holidays, then show videos of them at half time playing Cal songs.

I knew when they remodeled Harmon into Haas, that we would lose the well defined student rooting section which stretched from the floor to the roof. It was loud, and easy for yell leaders to gin up some enthusiasm.

When I was a little kid, the Cal basketball rooting section even had card stunts. Probably boring for millenials today, but even that would be better than the thoroughly unpleasant vibe of Haas last night.

If we can't come up with something interesting, basketball related, and not loud, then how about turning the PA system off when the game is not being played?

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Ironically, the Straw Hat Band WAS there last night... and they showed a video of the Cal Band playing a Cal song. Who thinks up this stuff?!?

While I'm not too big on ANY sort of contests or promotions, the half court shot for a big prize (maybe a shot from the OTHER free throw line for a HUGE prize?) is pretty tried and true.

Big C said:

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SFCityBear said:

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I agree with everything that has been said here.

Pre-game, halftime, and non-basketball time, the vibe was much too loud, uninteresting, boring, annoying, and had little to do with Cal or basketball.

What ever happened to the Epiphany Peanuts games with two elementary school teams playing each other? Now that was entertaining. You can't tell me there are no kids playing basketball in 3rd grade anymore.

Whatever happened to those promotions of a trip to Hawaii or something for the fan who could sink a shot from half court? If you can't find a sponsor for that, then how about a half court shot for a free season ticket, or tickets to the PAC12 tournament, or a meal for two at a Berkeley restaurant?

Or a 3-point shooting contest among two fans for free hot dogs, or a free throw contest for similar?

If there is no Straw Hat Band at the game due to holidays, then show videos of them at half time playing Cal songs.

I knew when they remodeled Harmon into Haas, that we would lose the well defined student rooting section which stretched from the floor to the roof. It was loud, and easy for yell leaders to gin up some enthusiasm.

When I was a little kid, the Cal basketball rooting section even had card stunts. Probably boring for millenials today, but even that would be better than the thoroughly unpleasant vibe of Haas last night.

If we can't come up with something interesting, basketball related, and not loud, then how about turning the PA system off when the game is not being played?

---

Ironically, the Straw Hat Band WAS there last night... and they showed a video of the Cal Band playing a Cal song. Who thinks up this stuff?!?

While I'm not too big on ANY sort of contests or promotions, the half court shot for a big prize (maybe a shot from the OTHER free throw line for a HUGE prize?) is pretty tried and true

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The half court shot is mostly for young fans with the strength to reach the basket, which not many fans have. If the objective of a promotion is to get more fans to participate, then shorter shots like threes are more likely to attract more fans to enter a drawing to take the shot.

I lived in Washington DC for a brief time in 1968, and the Baltimore Bullets were way down in attendance, something like 1000 fans on most nights, even though they had one of the NBA's most exciting players, rookie Earl the Pearl Monroe, who was averaging 40 points a game with a dazzling array of moves and shots to score over bigger men. The Bullets had promotions all the time to draw fans. I went to the game with a buddy, and a half court shot competition was advertised with the winner getting a trip to Hawaii, I think. They also had free teeshirt give away to every fan, and at one point they brought out 200 basketballs and threw them up into the stands for the fans. My buddy and I wore our sneakers (nobody wore sneakers in those days except little kids or basketball players playing basketball) We figured that would give us an edge over most fans in street shoes. Only about 500 fans showed up for the game. Your drawing number was your program number, and they picked about 10 fans to take the shot. Even with those great odds, neither of us got chosen. Nobody made the shot, but the 500 fans made quite a lot of noise cheering the shooters. A few years later they moved the team to Washington.

The Epiphany Peanuts or any teams of young grade school kids is my favorite half time show.

Big C said:

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Non-stop, irrelevant crap throughout the halftime, all at an ear-splitting volume. The "host" guy, he is not incompetent, but he is overbearing and irrelevant. No offense to him personally, but I hope he goes away, fast. This is not nice, on my part, but I'd like to see him slapped around a little bit, as the next timeout promotion. (Okay, maybe not, on that last part. That would be mean.)

I could almost see myself not going to games at some point, because of all this stupid crap. I'm there for three reasons... 1) the basketball... 2) coming back to my Alma Mater and its traditions... and... 3) chatting with my friends. Number Two is being laid to waste and in such a (loud) way that it's hard to do Number Three.

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The Conzo disaster lost me, and my yearly piddling five digit donations, forever.