Erin's Cal Goodies

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Memorial Stadium - Construction on Student Athlete Performance Center

Today I visited Memorial Stadium, chatted with a football buddy of mine, and took some pics!

Entering the construction zone...

Big holes are being made.

From the top of the stadium, pretty cool.

Inside fact - Cal was planning on keeping that tall tree Dumpster Muffin had taken habitat in, but had to cut it down because of the damage the tree-sitters inflicted. Isn't it ironic?

A pretty good look. They are going to install 4 huge exhaust fans on the west side of Memorial (on the insistence of the UC Regents) in case of a fire the air can quickly get out.

Also, they will build huge metal bars the vertical length of the stadium to "hold" Memorial from completely falling over / crumbling to the ground in case of an earthquake.

The first floor (bottom floor) plans including a picture of the presentation room (top left - although possibly with wider seats), weight room (top center), and weight room with the dining room overlooking it.

The second (top) floor plan including a picture of a hallway (top left), the dining area (top center), and the view from the plaza looking down the stairs going into the performance center (top right).

The locker room. They will go with the dark finish of the lockers.

And for those band folks out there, they are installing some arch metal beams in North Tunnel so that doesn't crumble onto poor band members. They will be able to storm out of North Tunnel as per usual, but they won't be able to hang out there while waiting to do so. Where will they wait? TBD... (my guess - inside the stadium in the endzone.)

Here is a link to a short video I took:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ1mQ9KLO6w

Go Bears!

Cal Football Money

The following is the amount of money each Pac-10 team earned from TV revenue in 2008. Note that Cal earned nearly $1 million more than stanfurd! If you’d like more information, go here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2009256167_uwmoney24.html. Note part of the reason Oregon State did so well is that the Beavers had a road game at Penn State (seating capacity 107,282).

Team 2008 TV revenue
USC $6,469,584
UCLA $4,905,922
Oregon State $4,864,571
Washington $4,740,518
California $4,388,159
Arizona State $4,091,777
Oregon $3,967,724
Stanford $3,449,961
Arizona $3,342,259
Wash. State $3,029,526

Monday, May 4, 2009

Some times for 2009 Cal Football Season

SEPT 5: Cal vs. Maryland, 7pm PST, ESPN2
SEPT 26: Cal @ Oregon, 12:30pm PST, ABC
OCT 3: Cal vs. USC, 5pm PST, ABC

Yes, I believe the 10pm EST time for the Maryland is payback for the 9am PST game last year! :)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Cal's Memorial Stadium

Howdy everyone-

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but I thought this was interesting enough to post. I am "stealing" these words verbatim from Steve Harris '93 who attended a presentation about the new Endowment Seating Program (ESP):

Ø The playing surface at Memorial will be lowered three feet to improve existing sightlines.

Ø To accommodate the 3,000 renovated seats, Memorial’s capacity will be reduced to about 63,200 people (Cal’s home attendance has been in the 62,000 range recently).

Ø The current plan involves Cal playing at Memorial for 2009 and 2010, but NOT 2011. The current hope is to host games at the Oakland Coliseum in 2011, but a deal is not in place yet… I sense Candlestick Park would be the backup plan, if an imperfect one, and I don’t sense that AT&T Park is a possibility at all. It’s going to cost a lot of money to rent out whatever place Cal’s going to need to rent out and we don’t have leverage.

Ø Evidently the City of Berkeley has informally said that it will not participate in a lawsuit about the Memorial Stadium renovation, which would mean that the Panoramic Hill Association (or whomever else) would have to post a bond to file such a lawsuit. Approval from the UC Regents should come this year and any lawsuit would need to be filed shortly thereafter.

Ø TIMELINES: the current working date for the opening of the Student-Athlete High Performance Center is Spring 2011. The current working date of the renovation of Memorial is to start in 2011 and that it will take one year. This appears to be an aggressive, optimistic timeframe for such a renovation. Then again, if the SAHPC exists in 2011 and there’s sufficient momentum on the Memorial renovation that it’ll take another 6-12 months to finish, who’s going to care?

Ø Timelines and lawsuits: this time Cal is prepared. The timeline of any lawsuit will fit neatly within the time period for the SAHPC to be finished. So if there is a lawsuit and it takes 1 or even 2 years to resolve, Cal’s timeframe to renovate Memorial isn’t affected at all.

Ø What’s the problem, then? IF there is a lawsuit, it’s going to be about the amount of money Cal can spend on the renovation. Under current law, the amount of money one can spend to renovate a stadium is capped at half of its value. The law isn’t clear about which is the best method to use in obtaining such a valuation. The endgame is this: the Panoramic Hill people would argue that Memorial sits on the Hayward Fault and it’s been crumbling for 75 years and it’s worthless, so Cal can’t spend any money on renovation. Cal of course says this is the greatest place on earth to watch a football game and it’s worth $600 million, so $300 million can be spent to renovate, and what do you know, the project is set at $300 million. Due to the lack of clear case law on the valuation issue, it’s in Cal’s best interest to smooth any ruffled feathers and avoid litigation. Hopefully everyone’s so exhausted (emotionally and financially) from the last go-round that nobody’s interested in seeing a courtroom again.

Ø How does Cal pay for all this? The 3,000 seats in the ESP program are expected to raise enough money to finance the renovation and all 27 sports in Cal Athletics going forward. What if the economy’s terrible enough that 3,000 people don’t buy in? Here’s the rub: it’s not 3,000 people that need to buy in… it’s realistically about 1,200, since most people will buy 2-3 seats in the program. They’re at 25% capacity now and really need to sell about 90% of capacity by the time the stadium renovation is complete (i.e., 2012 or 2013), NOT this summer, when the letter of intent period ends. So the bottom line is that Cal needs 1,000 – 1,200 new accounts to be initiated in the next three years for this project to work. Will it work? We’ll see!

Interesting!
Go Bears!
erin :)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Emerald Bowl Videos

Monday, December 15, 2008

New Ex-Comm, Basketball games, Briggs Concert, Emerald Bowl events

Hello everyone!

We have a few announcements for you - and I hope everyone is having a Happy Holidays so far.

* New Cal Band Ex-Comm - featuring 3 clarinet players! :)
* Bob Briggs Memorial Concert - we would love a bunch more players
* North Tunnel Echo - did you get yours?
* Alumni needed for basketball games - especially 12/27 at 1pm (Emerald Bowl game day)
* Emerald Bowl info & events - Saturday, 12/27, 5pm gametime

*** NEW CAL BAND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ***

Congratulations to our new Ex-Comm!

Senior Manager--Cindy Wu, piccolo '06
Drum Major--David Nagle, trombone '06S
tudent Director--Andrew Person, clarinet '06
Public Relations Director--Malia McPherson, clarinet '06
Executive Secretary--Beth Rotolo, clarinet '06

Congratulations to the Award Winners!

Sprague Award--Jeff Wayland, tenor drums '08 (most spirited newman)
Bear Award--Trent Severson, clarinet '08 (best musical newman)
"Tut" Gerdes Award--Griffin Hosseinzadeh, trombone '08 (lower brass)
Briggs Award (upper brass)--Grace Butler, trumpet '08
Briggs Family (upper woodwind)--Amy Fu, piccolo '08
Briggs Family (lower woodwind)--Masis Parunyan, tenor '08
Briggs Family (percussion)--Blaire Segal, cymbals '08
Baton Award--Malia McPherson, clarinet '06; Albert Liu, baritone '05 (highest academics)
Herbert Towler--Jon Nagata, baritone '07 (second or third year leader)
Bill Ellsworth--Ryan Wilcox, alto '05 (most spirited senior, given by CBAA)
Bell Award--Raul Lopez, bass drum '05 (most outstanding senior)
Pacesetter Award--Hector Salcedo, tenor '05 (best senior marcher)

*** BOB BRIGGS MEMORIAL CONCERT ***

In my initial thanks to everyone who helped for Bob Briggs' Memorial Celebration in October, I neglected to thank Mark West for his donation of wine from the Rominger West Winery. Thank you Mark!!!

From Bill Doherty...

I am excited to announce that Solano Winds has commissioned a piece to première at the Robert O. Briggs Memorial Festival! While looking for a composer who knows what kind of music Bob would like, it was instantly obvious that the right person for the job is Randy Biagi. Our community band is contracting with Randy to write a selection to add to the concert band repertoire, and Randy has chosen to create a Fantasia based on Hail to California! It's enough to give Bob eternal chills!! You can be an important part of premièring this new music. Sign up now to play in the Festival band by visiting www.solanowinds.org and following the link to the Robert O. Briggs Memorial Festival.

Player registration closes on January 15, but the sooner folks sign up, the better Randy can plan what the piece will look like. We're happy that in our early stages, we already have a fairly well balanced 32 piece group, but we'd like a lot more! In particular, Randy wants to incorporate all double reeds and a string bass into this score, but all concert band instruments are still needed. The Festival takes place at the Fairfield Center for Creative Arts in Fairfield on Sunday, February 15, 2009. We will rehearse at 1:00 PM and perform at 7:30 PM. Proceeds will benefit the Robert O. Briggs Scholarship Endowment Fund. If you have any questions about the Festival, please do not hesitate to contact me at bdoherty80@earthlink.net. In the meantime, I hope you'll be able to join us for this special musical tribute to Bob!

Thanks, Bill Doherty
Trumpet '76
Music Director, Solano Winds

*** NORTH TUNNEL ECHO ***

Everyone should have received a copy of their North Tunnel Echo in the mail. We apologize for the delay of this special issue, but for obvious reasons, we wanted to make sure we got it right.

I would like to give a huge thanks to our NTE staff for an excellent job well done - Editor Jason Clark, Tristan Harward, Tara Castro, PR-Comm, and many many others that spent countless hours helping. All of you are class acts!!

*** CAL BAND ALUMNI NEEDED AT BASKETBALL GAMES ***

The Cal Band has requested our help with basketball Straw Hat Bands during their Winter Break. Uniform would be Straw Hat if you have it, Alumni Band if not. These are always a fun way to play and be with current band members, and to see some great Cal basketball. Following is a list of the games they need help with, along with the call times for each. Keep your eyes open for additional announcements and information, and watch the CBAA web site. Please RSVP to Chris Bailey for any game you would like to attend & play: chris@batesandbailey.com.

As you are probably aware, the Emerald Bowl is on Saturday, 12/27 at 5pm. The men's basketball game vs. Dartmouth has been moved to 1pm so fans can attend both if they like. The Cal Band is hoping this game can be alumni led and staffed, as they will not be able to go at all due to marching rehearsals and other performances that day. WE ARE LOOKING FOR A DIRECTOR FOR THIS GAME. Please email Chris Bailey (chris@batesandbailey.com) if you are interested.

Here's the schedule with gametimes, call times are 45 minutes before in BRH:

12/20 Men's v. Nevada 3:30
12/22 Men's v. Colgate 8:00
12/22 Women's v. Baylor 5:00
12/27 Men's v. Dartmouth 1:00 **We need an alumni director!**
12/28 Men's v. TBA, 2:30pm or 5:00pm
12/29 Women's v. St. Mary's 7:00
1/2 Men's v. Arizona 5:30
1/4 Men's v. ASU 5:00
1/8 Women's v. WSU 7:00
1/11 Women's v. UW 12:30
1/18 Women's v. Stanfurd 3:00

*** EMERALD BOWL INFORMATION ***

Your California Golden Bears will take on the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday, Dec. 27th at 5pm at AT&T Park in San Francisco. CAA wants to invite you to a variety of activites on Friday Dec. 26th and Saturday, Dec. 27th, including the official Cal Tailgate. Check it out! www.alumni.berkeley.edu/bowl

Official Cal Tailgate!
2:30 - 4:30pmPier 48 at AT&T Park
(parking available in Parking Lot A)

Don't miss the event of the weekend—the official Cal tailgate! Enjoy the Cal Marching Band, Dance Team, Oski, a pep-talk from Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, and more. Receive a discount if you register online before midnight, Wednesday Dec. 24th. A limited number of walk-ups will be available at the tailgate entrance at a higher price. You can register for either beverages only or beverages with food. Special pricing is available for young alumni, students, families, and youths.

There are 4 events on Friday to attend as well as a post-game concert at the Warfield on Saturday night - all in San Francisco. Even if you aren't going to the game, check out the events.

Go Bears! Cal Band Great!
Erin Proudfoot '92
CBAA Communications Chair

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Cal @ OSU Tailgate + Wine Dinner

Hello Bear Fans!

If you are travelling to the OSU game, we sincerely hope you'll join us both for the pre-game tailgate and the Friday night wine dinner. It's a $10 per person discount when you buy both!

Online registration for both events closes at midnight, Wednesday, Nov. 12. We will accept walk-ups (at a higher price) at the pre-game tailgate, but cannot accept walk-ups for the Friday night wine dinner.

OFFICIAL CAL @ OSU TAILGATE

http://alumni.berkeley.edu/CAA_Events/Athletics/OSU_Tailgate.asp
(full information and RSVP link above)

When: Saturday, Nov. 15th, 10am - 12:30pm
Where: LaSells Stewart Center (right across from the stadium)
Menu: BBQ chicken and BBQ rib sandwiches, macaroni salad, tossed salad with dressings, baked beans, cornbread with butter and honey, cookies and bars
Beverages: All-inclusive beer, wine, hard lemonade, soda, coffee, tea
More: Cal Band, Dance Team, Oski, and Sandy Barbour!

Pricing and registration is on the CAA website:

http://alumni.berkeley.edu/CAA_Events/Athletics/OSU_Tailgate.asp

* * *

BEARS IN THE NORTHWEST WINE DINNER

http://alumni.berkeley.edu/CAA_Events/Athletics/osu_winery_dinner.asp
(full information and RSVP link above)

This will be an intimate evening with Sandy Barbour at a beautiful wine cellar in downtown Corvallis. We will get a tour of the facility from the winemaker as well as an explanation of their wines.

When: Friday, Nov. 14th, 6pm - 9pm
Where: Belle Vallee Wine Cellars (in downtown Corvallis)
Menu: 3-course buffet dinner (chicken, salmon, prime rib), salad, vegetable medley, baby red potatoes, bread/butter, chocolate dessert
Beverages: All-inclusive beer, wine, lemonade, water, coffee, tea
More: Live guitar music