UCLA debacle 3 of 5: Who’s leaving?
(Written by kencraw)
I have two long running jokes with my wife to help lighten the mood after a crushing Cal loss:
- The good news is that I guess we can remove the “Rose Bowl tickets” budget line-item
- Looks like we’ll be able to improve our season ticket location next year
The second joke is more true than anyone wants to admit, although we’re not really at that point yet this year. There’s no doubt that during the bad seasons both the number of season tickets goes through the floor and the number of people using their tickets go down. All of a sudden there are a lot less complaints about how much space is allocated for each rear-end on the bench with the empty seats to spread out into.
So it’s gut check time.
Yeah, none of us have to worry about the Old Blues… they’ll be around as long as they’re alive. But there are A LOT of young blues out there who are buying season tickets. I’ve got a question for you: do you see yourself as an Old Blue some day? If so, this program wants you! This University was built by Old Blues, not by flash in the pan Young Blues. You want to become an Old Blue? It’s easy enough. You can complain. You can be disgusted. You can be cynical. But whatever you do, your rear-end better be in the seat for the next home game, and every game after that no matter how bad it gets.
That’s how you become an Old Blue.
October 21st, 2007 at 8:42 pm
My wife and mother decided after the Oregon game that they both wanted to go to the USC game. My dad and I share a pair of EE season tix, so I gave my ticket to my mom and bought a pair in section C for me and my wife. Ugh, I won’t even tell you how much I paid on StubHub for those tickets, thinking that they would only go up with each Cal victory and I would kick myself to miss that game just because I was cheap.
The 2007 Cal Bears. First they break your heart, then they break your bank.
October 21st, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I’m not going anywhere. What’s the worst that can happen? We suck again. I suffered through 3 years of that and had the greatest time of my life. The atmosphere at the games might not be at the same level when we suck, but it’ll STILL be Cal football. It’ll still be Memorial Stadium. It’ll still be tailgating 4 hours ahead of time in whichever parking lot we get permits in. It’ll still be BBQs at the fraternity. It’ll still be seeing old band friends randomly in the stand.
Whether we are 10-1 or 1-10, it’s still Cal football. GO BEARS!
October 21st, 2007 at 11:05 pm
You can make all the excuses as to why you’re going to stick around Twist… but we all know the REAL reason is your fear of me hunting you down with my Trident if you stop coming.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I’m 22 and hell yes I’ll be buying season tics next year and every year after that until I die.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:18 am
Let’s try to use that trident for good instead of evil.
And by good, I, of course, mean keeping #1 Fan Seth from physically assaulting Bob Gregory.
It’s just a matter of time, people!
PS I need to go to as many Cal games as I can right now, because I’m gonna have some kids in the next few years (hopefully) and then it’ll be a lot tougher to go see games. Gotta enjoy em while I can.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
I just about died laughing when I read your post with Seth hovering in the bushes. You’re right, keeping Seth in check has been a blog-long project for me.
When you’ve got the kids Twist, let me know. You’ll be able to keep your season tickets through that with the right tips and tricks. My kids have been season ticket holders for every year of their lives, with the exception of my first boy in his first year when he was 1-3 months old (and we got him to his first Big Game at 3 months). If you start them when they’re young and get isle seats for the ability to get up and move around when needed, they do great. I’m sure they’ll be very impressed to hear that daddy was once in the band they love so much.
My boys are 4 and 2 1/2 right now and do great. I think they enjoy it more than I do, particularly the loses. My yet to be born newborn already had a ticket purchased for the 2007 season (if you buy it, they will come).
The road games on the other hand… those you need to do now.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 am
Thank you for the kind words.
See, the problem is I don’t sit at the games. In fact, I’ve never sat at a game, except for maybe that Fresno State game in 2000, because they put the band in a really odd area and all the fans behind us were yelling at us to sit down.
I get the feeling that we have highly divergent game experiences. You sit there with your kids and have a great family moment together. I stand for hours on end, packed in with all my 20-something friends and think up new and inventive ways to string swear words together with various body parts. I’m not sure how kids can work into that situation. But we’ll see.
As for the road trips, I can’t do those. I’m married and my wife doesn’t care for football. I got her a ticket to a game last year, she got there, realized we were gonna stand for the next 3 hours and left after 8 minutes. It wasn’t good.
See, Ragnarok gets to go to all the road games, because a)his wife was in the band and LOVES Cal football and b)she now works for the alumni office, so he just mooches along with that. Works the tailgates and gets free tickets and lodging. Now, that’s a marriage made in heaven. ;)!
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:02 am
Yeah, there’s no doubt about it… you’re going to have to re-adjust your gameday experience with the kids. As an upside, your wife will probably love you for giving her the day off 6-8 Saturdays each fall.
And you’ve already got the ticket for the swearing: “What the AYOOB was that!?!”
I know I laugh at myself constantly at the word contortions I go through not to swear. I forget what I said at this point, but my brother and I were laughing about whatever it was after that horrible personal foul against OSU when he hit the guy tip-toeing up the sideline.
I man run a family-friendly blog, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have it in my to run an NC-17 one if I so desired.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I may be cursed with a serious strain of pessimism, but I will never give up & leave the Bears. Never. In the interest of sanity I’ll temper my optimism, but I will be up in section EE for every game I can possibly make for the rest of my life.