Cal football bench reportedly switching sidelines from student section to alumni
Cal football bench reportedly switching sidelines from student section to alumni
California Golden Bears students will get to directly be behind visiting opponents in 2024.
One Cal football update now that tickets are open for sale for the 2024 season. The sidelines appear to be switching. The Home Bench is heading to the shady section on the west side of Memorial Stadium, and the visitors will switch to the sunny side.
The Pac-12 did not allow student sections to be situated behind the visiting home section due to the competitive advantage it could afford any one program. Oddly enough, because Cal was one of the few student sections in the conference that had the students situated at the 50 yard line, this meant the football team had the disadvantage of being situated in the sun and having to deal with more inclement conditions that the visitors didn’t have to worry about.
In the ACC, no such restrictions exist. So it appears the students will be right behind the visiting section next year. The Big Game could get fairly rowdy!
It’ll be interesting if the Cal Band will also be moving. I do recall there are general rules about a marching band being behind a visitor’s student section, and that is where they currently are. So it is possible they may be on the move elsewhere.
As long as we’ve known it, the Cal student section has been situated behind the football team. It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment for us.
I hope that this is a sign, along with the new chancellor, that there will be some heavy thought put into restoring traditions and game day experiences.
Something else I wonder: With the move to the ACC, will the victory cannon move back into the stadium? That's where it was - on the east side south of the team area - from 1964-1970 before the-then Pacific-8 Conference banned cannons in member stadia in 1971 (following an injury accident involving the Stanford cannon in 1970). It was moved up to Tightwad Hill in 1973 and has been there ever since.