Stanford Doesn’t Want Cal Fans At The Big Game

What's up with Bay Area teams and stadium squabbles?

Perhaps looking to lock out some Cal fans and gain a modest home field advantage, Stanford has reduced the available number of "Big Game" tickets. This is partly due to Stanford's whole "who wants a big stadium anyway?" project that saw the demolition of their old 85,000 capacity butt splinter masterpiece and completion of a new 50,000 seat humble abode.

This of course puts the squeeze on Cal fans. Cal boosters can still get any of 15,011 allocated Big Game tickets through their ticket office if they have donated mad scrilla to the athletic department but after that? Well, read this:

Anyone can get a Big Game ticket by buying a Stanford season ticket, which ranges from $185 to $299. So far, Stanford season ticket sales are about the same as last year, and the school, which recently hired a new football coach, expects to sell 25,000 to 30,000, said Gary Migdol, senior assistant athletic director.
"We have no idea if Cal fans are buying Stanford season tickets," he said. "That question is not on the ticket application. But I can tell you that right now there are plenty of Big Game tickets available for anyone who wants to buy a Stanford season ticket."
That pill is too bitter for some Cal fans.
"I'm not giving them my money," said Bonnie Hazarabedian, who is such a Cal fan that she named her daughter Callie. "There has to be a better option."

I'd commiserate with Cal fans, but this is fairly standard practice nowadays.

Unfortunately Stanford built a smaller stadium and so long as their football team lags they need to find other ways to sell season tickets because their fans just aren't buying. The same thing happens every year down the road in Los Angeles with USC and UCLA as both school's fans must buy specific ticket packages in order to get single game tickets for the rivalry if they are shut out of the normal allocation process.