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Late-Night Start Times Contributing To Poor Season-Ticket Renewal Rate For Cal Football

Season-ticket renewals for Cal football are down 30% in the aftermath of the team's "latest uninspiring season," but what is driving fans away "are the late-night contests whose starting times aren't finalized until a few days before the game," according to Matier & Ross of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The message from alumni is that the poor renewal rate "wasn't so much" recently fired coach Sonny Dykes or the team's 5-7 record. The changing game times are "all to serve the Pac-12 conference's new master, its megabucks TV contract." When these alumni "became fans, the typical Cal home game started in the early afternoon on a Saturday." This past season, the "juggle for TV time resulted in two late-afternoon home games and three night games -- including one on a Friday." The game times "may be a problem for fans," but those 7:30pm PT kickoffs are being "scheduled to accommodate a TV contract" that guarantees Cal $25M a year. That is "a lot more" than the $3.8M that season-ticket sales brought in this past season. The contract also "guarantees that every Cal game will be televised," either by Pac-12 Networks, ESPN or Fox Sports. Pac-12 Conference VP/Public Affairs Erik Hardenbergh said that when Cal and the other conference schools signed off on the 12-year TV contract in '12, they "agreed that their goal was to generate 'more revenue and exposure' for their programs." The networks "slot nighttime games on the West Coast to fill out their schedules" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/17). In S.F., Scott Ostler notes Cal alums "want their afternoon football games, but TV money allows Cal to compete in the Pac-12, and keeps minor sports alive." Ostler: "Reality is a jerk, but it’s his neighborhood -- and his ball" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/17).

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