Cal Takes Tarps Off End Zone Seats, Hopes For Biggest Crowd For The Opener In Nearly A Decade

CBS Bay Area

August 28, 2026

California is taking the tarps off the seats in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium and is trending toward having its biggest home crowd in nearly a decade for its season opener against UCLA.

First-year coach Tosh Lupoi personally removed the tarps in a social media video released by the school Tuesday, and the school plans to keep them off all season. Tickets are already being sold for those sections for the entire home schedule, and Cal is expecting a sellout for the first game against the Bruins on Sept. 5.

"We've done some really good things with our ticket sales that most certainly are up," general manager Ron Rivera said Wednesday. "This also shows the interest. One of the things that has been really good for us is to have a marquee game. Marquee games at home mean an awful lot. It means the attendance most certainly will be up and also good for television for us. These are part of the metrics that we're being measured on, is the butts in the seats and how the eyeballs are on the television sets when we play."

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