Upcoming California Golden Bears Football dates
Dates and live ticket listings appear here as soon as they are on sale. The guide below covers what to know before you buy.
West side or east side: the Memorial Stadium choice
At Cal, the seat decision comes down to which half of the stadium you want. The west side was rebuilt for 2012 and has the modern amenities, club seating and the sun behind you on afternoon kickoffs. The east side is the original 1923 bowl, plainer but with the view people remember: from its upper rows the Bay spreads out beyond the far sideline. Either way, aim for the stretch between the 30-yard lines. The stadium holds roughly 63,000 for a football Saturday on the UC Berkeley campus, and the Golden Bears' home dates stretch from the start of the season, around Labor Day, into November.
- Comfort and amenities: west side, especially the club areas.
- The view: upper rows on the east side.
- Football sightlines: mid-height lower-level rows between the 30s, either side.
- Budget: end zone seats.
A stadium built in two halves
An active earthquake fault, the Hayward, crosses beneath the field nearly end to end. The builders responded by making two independent halves: an east side set into the slope of the hill and a west side that holds the main structure. Between 2010 and 2012 the west half was demolished and rebuilt, keeping only its historic facade, and gained club seating plus a press box along the top. The east half was left mostly untouched. The field's long axis points northwest to southeast.
Why the low west rows improved
The renovation dropped the playing surface by four feet. Until then, visiting players crowding their sideline stood right in the line of sight of fans in the bottom west-side rows. If an older review warns you off those rows, it predates the fix.
Sun and views by side
As a rule of thumb, the east side faces west, toward the afternoon sun and the Bay. The west side keeps the sun at your back, and its fans gaze up at the Berkeley Hills and into Strawberry Canyon. For an early-season day game, that makes the west side the cooler choice; for a sunset view, the east rim wins.
The south end
Tarps have covered the four sections at the far south end since 2022, and a terrace connected to the concourse now sits between them. Expect an open, social space there rather than a continuous wall of seats.
Look up past the east rim and you will see Tightwad Hill, a slope where spectators have watched for decades without a ticket, Big Game days above all. It is outside the stadium and is not sold as seating.
Big Game years and the opponents that matter
In Berkeley, who is visiting changes ticket demand more than it does at most Power Four campuses.
- Stanford: the Big Game goes back to 1892, among the longest-running rivalries anywhere, and the victor carries off the Stanford Axe. It alternates between Berkeley and Palo Alto, so confirm the site before you buy. Cal won four in a row from 2021 to 2024. See Stanford Cardinal Football for the other side.
- UCLA: the state's two biggest public universities were league mates for 95 years and are scheduled to keep meeting through at least 2029 (see UCLA Bruins Football).
- SMU: one of Cal's two protected annual ACC opponents, with Stanford.
- East Coast ACC visitors: programs such as Miami, Clemson and Florida State rarely come to Berkeley. ESPN's College GameDay came to campus for the first time when Miami visited on October 5, 2024.
Night games and Homecoming push demand up; early nonconference games are the easiest tickets of the year.
Card stunts, The Play and the Joe Roth game
Cal students first performed card stunts in 1910, at a Big Game played at the old California Field, and the snaking postgame march on the field, the "serpentine" sung about in "Big C," dates to the same period.
Since 1977, the Joe Roth Memorial Game has remembered Roth, an All-American quarterback who kept playing while fighting melanoma and died only weeks after his last game. Each year the honor goes to whichever of UCLA or USC visits Berkeley; see USC Trojans Football.
The most famous moment in the Big Game happened in this stadium. In 1982, Stanford went ahead on a kick with four seconds to go, and Cal returned the ensuing kickoff with five laterals and scored to win 25–20. It is known simply as The Play. Another oddity in Cal's past: in the 1929 Rose Bowl, Roy Riegels picked up a fumble and ran the wrong way.
BART, shuttles and the walk uphill
Parking around the stadium is scarce, so plan on transit. In 2026 the athletics department operates no-cost shuttles that loop between the Downtown Berkeley BART station, university lots and drop-off spots near the gates. They start roughly 150 minutes ahead of kickoff and keep going for an hour after the final whistle. From the drop-off it is a short walk of five to ten minutes, and fans who need mobility help can ride free golf carts.
Drivers can buy flat-rate gameday parking, card payment only, in university lots such as Lower Hearst, Lower Sproul, the Genetics Garage and the Bancroft garage. Closures roll out in two waves: Stadium Rimway shuts four hours out, and Piedmont Avenue, Gayley Road, Bancroft Way and Warring Street follow at two hours. Since the stadium is up a hill where Strawberry Canyon opens, comfortable shoes help. Current details are on the Cal football parking and transportation page.
When Cal tickets get scarce
The prime sideline locations, among them the endowment seats and club areas created by the 2012 rebuild, belong to donors and season subscribers, and students draw from their own pool. The public can buy single-game seats for most dates. The stadium tends to fill only for the Big Game, opening weekends and marquee visitors.
Resale handles those sellouts and lets you choose an exact section for any game. Prices respond to the opponent, the kickoff slot and how the season is going. Expect a home Big Game, or a ranked ACC team under the lights, to stay expensive, and expect a midseason date with an unranked visitor to loosen late. Each Reserved Seat purchase includes a 100% guarantee. Bag limits, entry procedures and mobile ticketing are set by the athletics department and may change by season; confirm them before game day.
Wonder Teams to the Atlantic Coast
Football at Cal goes back to the 1880s. The school claims five national championships: four straight from 1920 through 1923, plus 1937. Coach Andy Smith's "Wonder Teams" were unbeaten in 50 consecutive games between 1920 and 1925; the 1937 "Thunder Team" defeated Alabama at the Rose Bowl; and under Pappy Waldorf, from 1947 to 1950, Cal strung together 33 regular-season wins and reached three Rose Bowls. In the modern era, Aaron Rodgers quarterbacked a 10–1 regular season in 2004, and Jared Goff rewrote 26 school records.
The stadium was dedicated in 1923 to the dead of World War I, with a design that borrows from the Roman Colosseum, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A naming-rights agreement announced in September 2026 calls the field Databricks Field at California Memorial Stadium. Cal spent more than 100 years in the West Coast league in its various forms (Pacific Coast, Pac-8, Pac-10, Pac-12) before it and Stanford joined the ACC in 2024.
Frequently asked questions
Which side of California Memorial Stadium has the best view?
The upper rows of the east side, which look west across the field toward San Francisco Bay. The west side looks toward the Berkeley Hills and Strawberry Canyon.
Are the lowest west-side rows at Memorial Stadium blocked?
Much less than before. The 2010–2012 project dropped the field four feet, which lifted those rows above the visiting team's sideline.
Is the Big Game in Berkeley every year?
No. It alternates between Berkeley and Palo Alto, so confirm which campus hosts before you buy. The winner keeps the Stanford Axe.
What is the easiest way to reach a Cal game?
Take BART to Downtown Berkeley. In 2026, free shuttles leave for the stadium starting roughly 150 minutes before kickoff.
Can you watch Cal games from Tightwad Hill?
Spectators have watched for free from that slope over the east side for decades, but it lies outside the stadium and no seats there are sold.
What is the field at Memorial Stadium called now?
A September 2026 naming-rights agreement renamed the playing surface; it is now Databricks Field at California Memorial Stadium.