Large crowd anticipated in Berkeley for Cal’s opener against UCLA

University of California, Berkeley is expecting a large crowd for its first home football game of the season Saturday against rival University of California, Los Angeles.

Cal Athletics’ ticketing website shows that some sections of California Memorial Stadium are already sold out, while other sections show low availability for the 7:30 p.m. matchup.

Cal averaged less than 35,000 fans per home game during its 2025 season and hasn’t had over 60,000 fans for any game since a 2015 matchup against Grambling State University, according to Cal Athletics’ website.

On Aug. 25, Cal Athletics announced that it had removed the tarps covering seats in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium — which had been in place for several years due to the program’s attendance struggles — in anticipation of a large crowd for Saturday’s game. The video announcing the tarps’ removal can be seen at https://x.com/CalAthletics/status/2092296025491079286?s=20.

“As much as it hurt my heart for the Raiders and the A’s and everyone to leave, this is the show here,” said Cal head coach Tosh Lupoi about local enthusiasm for Saturday’s game during a press conference. “On this side of the bridge, especially, there’s no professional organizations and this place is fully capable of being one of the elite, premier college environments.”

Excitement surrounding Cal football has grown since the Golden Bears notched a 7-6 record in its 2025 campaign, which marked its first winning season since 2019.

In the offseason, Cal continued to make forward strides, bringing in Lupoi — a former Cal defensive lineman who served in 2025 as the defensive coordinator at the University of Oregon, which finished the season ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 — and a class of transfer players ranked No. 14 in the country by 247Sports, a website that covers the recruitment of college athletes.

“You like to think we’re taking those kinds of steps that put us in a position where we can be very, very competitive and win,” said Ron Rivera, Cal football’s general manager, who came to the program in 2025 after serving as head coach of the NFL’s Washington Commanders from 2020 to 2023, during a press conference.

Saturday’s game will also mark the return of the Joe Roth Memorial Game — a tradition held every year at Cal from 1977 through 2023 – to Memorial Stadium.

The game honors Cal’s 1976 first team All American quarterback Joe Roth, who, according to Cal Athletics, entered the 1976 season as a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, an award given to the top player in college football, before being diagnosed with terminal cancer halfway through the season. Roth died at 21 in February 1977, shortly after he continued to play with his diagnosis through the season’s conclusion.

To honor Roth, the Golden Bears will wear throwback uniforms – known for having bright royal blue and coloring – and gold helmets that mirror the threads worn by the team during Roth’s playing days. The uniforms can be seen on Cal Football’s X account at https://x.com/CalFootball/status/2095621672997097610?s=20.

The university will also be giving away bright blue and gold Joe Roth rally towels to the first 15,000 fans in Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

The game, which will be televised on ESPN, has also been receiving lots of national media attention, with ACC Huddle — the flagship college football studio and traveling show of the ACC Network — set to broadcast its show live from Cal’s Memorial Glade at 7 a.m.

“There’s a really cool opportunity to showcase our program, our university and our rocking fanbase this coming Saturday,” said Lupoi in a press conference.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperatures in Berkeley are expected to be in the low 60s around kickoff time and should gradually decrease into the high 50s throughout the game.

Tickets for the game are still available at https://calbears.evenue.net/events/FBS.

The Cal-UCLA game is the first of seven home games slated for Cal’s 2026 season. The Golden Bears will host Wagner College on Sept. 19, Clemson University on Sept. 25, Virginia Tech on Oct. 10, Wake Forest University on Oct. 17, Stanford University on Nov. 21 and the University of Pittsburgh on Nov. 28.

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