Do your democratic duty as citizens of CGB and go vote in our 2010 Football Predictions. Otherwise, the terrorists (our feathered friends at Addicted to Quack) win!
JO talks about the effect attendance at AT&T Park will have on the 2011 season and beyond.
The Bears have about 38,000 season-ticket holders. Assuming that number holds steady, that leaves only about 7,000 single-game tickets per home date for other fans to purchase. The configuration for Cal games at AT&T Park will allow for a capacity of 45,000.
This is not to say this isn’t the right decision by Cal. It is just a little bit of a surprising one. The Oakland Coliseum holds over 63,000 for football and Candlestick Park holds almost 70,000. The university could have packed in a lot more fans at those venues.
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Then there’s this: Don’t downplay the marketing affect playing at AT&T Park could have. Of the three venues considered, AT&T Park will be the most similar to the renovated Memorial Stadium in terms of amenities and game-day experience. Even if it is only 7,000 casual fans per game, that could help Cal expand its fan base moving forward once it returns to Memorial Stadium. And maybe being a tough ticket isn’t such a bad thing. If getting a ticket to a Cal football game is considered a premium, that could also help marketing the program in the future.
Also consider that playing in San Francisco could help Cal make a dent in a new fan base. The majority of fans that come to football games don’t come from San Francisco. Barbour said she is excited about the prospect of drawing in new fans by playing at AT&T Park.
After the jump ESPN releases a new television schedule for the 2010 football season, JO may have a new rival, Ted Miller predicts Pac-10 bowls, and more on the AT&T park decision.
Cal Football
- Some of you may have noticed that ESPN put out its bracket of the top-16 college teams that contribute to NFL talent. Cal barely missed the cut, coming in at 19th in ESPN's ratings.
- Ted Miller predicts the 2010-2011 bowl season. USC makes it into another Rose Bowl, Oregon is a BCS at-large headed to the Fiesta Bowl, and Cal heads to Texas on New Year's Eve for the Sun Bowl where they will face Clemson.
- Many factors played into Cal's decision to partner with AT&T Park for the 2011 season; attendance was not one of them. SFGate recaps the decision to move to AT&T.
- John Crumpacker ('77 alum) will become the Chronicle's lead reporter on all things Cal. It looks like he'll be the SFGate version of JO.
- Go here to see yesterday's press conference at AT&T park. This transcript captures most of the commentsfrom Sandy Barbour, Coach Tedford, and Larry Baer. Baer detailed some changes the field will see over the Emerald Bowl setup: teams will not share a sideline, bleachers will be brought in for more seating, and the north end zone will be moved so there is more room between the end zone and the wall.
- ESPN's most recent television schedule has Cal in only one nationally televised game: Friday Sept. 17th at Nevada.
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