Cal fans, what New Year’s Resolutions would you like to see from the Bears?

Piotr Le: I think Cal athletics needs to realize that we are unable to carry 28-ish sports and that many of them need to be cut in order to maintain the financial viability of the department as a whole. These decisions will anger many fans/donors who love those sports but these cuts need to be made to keep the whole afloat. Personally, I am going to try to take games less "life and death"-ishly. Often times the game can really set me in a bad mood if Cal looses. I also tend to take being a fan to the extreme and it is bad for my heart if I see a player drop a 5 step slant.

Berkelium97: I'd like to see Cal Athletics resolve to make dramatic improvements to its customer/alumni relations. For several years they have introduced policies that are hostile to fans: the incredibly stupid decision to start breathalyzing students a few years back, the ever-changing bag policies that make it difficult for families to attend football games, a ban on umbrellas in a notoriously rainy part of CA.

Further exacerbating matters is the increasing focus on ads, naming rights, and sponsored segments at football games, which detracts from more enjoyable traditions like the Cal Band (who must now also split time with piped-in music too). I understand that college football is (regrettably) changing into a more transparent revenue-maker for many schools, but that is difficult to accept when the product on the football field is mediocre and we're once again facing the prospect of cutting sports. I could accept the intrusion of advertising money if it meant that we had a great football team and that our non-revenue sports were sustainable. But the fan experience hasn't improved much over the past four years and we don't have much to show for the increased revenue.

Ruey Yen: I agree with Berkelium97 that Cal Athletics needs to do a much better job in its relationship to the Cal fans/alum/donors. Having more people invested monetarily but also equally if not more importantly emotionally is the only way that Cal Athletics can survive the incoming budget crunch. Cal Athletics need to do a much better job to avoid losing money via incompetency like in the situation of with the Field Hockey field and Title IX lawsuit.

I think the relationship building with the Cal "fans" will be sabotaged by a faulty plan to cut any sports and irreparably severe ties with any chunks of the fanbase. Realistically, the only way out of the red for Cal Athletics is to make more profit in the revenue sports - which includes bringing in more fans. Beyond setting a tighter operation budgets for the non-revenue sports, the scope of money involved there is not really even worth the time by the Athletics department. The weird and frankly sad reality of college athletics is that the decision of the new Cal Football Defense Coordinator will have more monetary affect on the potential Cal Athletics department profit in the next few years than any plan to cut sports short of the nuclear option (wiping out a third of sports).

Since I am the resident Cal fan for basically all 30 Cal sports, some people think that I have the luxury of almost always finding positives to write about on a weekly basis. I need to do a better job in enjoying the Cal successes while accepting that Cal Bears will not win every sports events in all competitions. Unfortunately, it's the losses and disappointments that stick with me longer than the victories.

Nik Jam: Seems like the popular answer here is for Cal to cut teams... I'm going to go against the grain here and hope that Cal finds a way not to cut any teams. Yeah, maybe that's not realistic and I'm not going to pretend like I think it is. But it would be very hollow if Cal improves in the "revenue" sports at the expense of losing other teams... and I'm not convinced Football will be revived by cutting other teams to begin with.

But I hope I can help out any teams on the chopping block as much as I can. I've been attending gymnastics (both genders), baseball and softball on a regular basis. This was true before, during, and after their proposed 2011 cuts. But usually I take advantage of my old Cal student ID and attend games for free. (Though Men's Gym has been starting to charge for all games even for students) I plan on paying for tickets the right way and donate money when I can to help them out.

There's plenty of Cal sports I've never watched to begin with, like Track, Golf, and Crew. Maybe 2017 will be the year I can make that happen, and hopefully show my support for those programs in case something happens to them. The same goes for other teams that I've seldom attended, like Lacrosse and Field Hockey.

It's easy to hope teams get cut when you don't watch them to begin with... I hope fans come out to support teams like gymnastics and baseball, I promise you won't want them to be cut after seeing a game or two.