Stanford Locking Cal Fans Out of the Big Game

We knew Jim Harbaugh had some serious juice, but we didn’t know he was capable of pulling this off (he probably had nothing to do with it, but it’s still fun to pretend, right?). Astute reader JS points out that Stanford is doing whatever they can to lock Cal fans out of the Big Game in hopes of gaining some sort of a homefield advantage.

The only way for Cal fans to get Big Game tickets at this point is to have donated at least $6,800 to the athletic booster fund or to buy Stanford season tickets.
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Anyone can get a Big Game ticket by buying a Stanford season ticket, which ranges from $185 to $299.

What a jacked up scenario. So here’s the deal: Stanford downsized its stadium to 50,000 seats, creating a smaller supply of tickets. Cal fans wouldn’t be caught dead contributing money to its rival school, but they need to make it to the game to support their team somehow. So what the heck do they do?

This isn’t unlike the case for many NFL season ticket holders who are forced to buy pre-season tickets of their favorite team, and very similar to what the Chargers did to block out Raider fans, forcing tickets to be bought in multiple game packages. But I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the biggest eff you moves by one rival school to another. Bottom line — when you’re 1-11, you have to do anything you can for an advantage.