Cal Turns a Section Over to the Black Hole for Duke Game

A section that seats about 100 people just behind the south end zone at California’s Memorial Stadium has been painted black, hoping people with painted faces and other distinctive gear show up to add color to Cal’s home game against Duke on Saturday.

It’s a night game and will be televised nationally by ESPN. That seems the perfect setting for the Raiders’ “Black Hole” contingent, and Cal (4-1, 1-0 ACC) has invited those folks to its game against the Blue Devils (3-2, 2-0 ACC) to sit in that cordoned-off, ground-level section behind the south goal posts.

Cal has placed no restriction on attire so it remains to be seen if any will be dressed in the outrageous costumes that distinguish the Black Hole members at Raiders games. Many will at least be wearing t-shirts specifically created for the Black Hole contingent, courtesy of Marshawn Lynch’s company Beastmode.

As of Thursday morning, about 70 Black Hole members have obtained tickets to the game, although Cal is calling the section where they will be sitting the Black Bear, not the Black Hole.

So Cal is hoping to get some Saturday night excitement from that group since the Black Hole people can no longer attend Raiders games in Oakland and must take their act to Las Vegas for Raider home games. Cal is hoping to keep some of them in the East Bay.

“We’re working on it it,” Cal football general manager Ron Rivera said. “I think we’ve got a little something, a little bit of a surprise for these folks coming on Saturday night, so we’re pretty excited about it,” Cal general manager Ron Rivera said. “Hopefully they’ll feel welcomed and they’ll want to come back.”

Would he like to see guys wearing shoulder pads with spikes?

“Absolutely,” he said. “As long as they’re in blue and gold, I’ll be happy about that.”

Saturday will be Cal’s second night game in its first three home games, and a third night game will be played against North Carolina in Berkeley in the Bears’ next game.

Rivera sees advantages and disadvantages to night games. Putting an exciting product on the field is Step One in any case.

“What you’d love to do, if you can, come see the first half, go home, watch it on television,” Rivera said. “We can’t control [the starting time]; ESPN controls our game times. We had asked for this game to be at least as [early] as 4 o’clock or 3 o’clock, but ESPN feels that this game has some significance, us versus Duke, two programs that are winning right now, and they want us to compete on TV. So we go by what we’re being told.

“I wish we could change it. I’d love to have it fit our fan base a little bit more.”

Rivera prefers football games be played in the afternoon.

Night games may hurt attendance somewhat. The first night game, against Minnesota, drew 38,556 and ended at about 11 p.m. That would be about 2 a.m. Duke time.

However, televised Cal night games are virtually the only college football game being shown nationally in that time slot. That is appealing for West Coast viewership, if not for East Coast viewers.

“It’s a benefit for us, which is why watching us on television is such a big deal,” Rivera said, “because the prime time rating is an important metric that we’re being measured by.”

Also night games are attractive to Cal students.

“They are, especially on weekends because most of them don’t wake up until after noon, so I figure it’ll work right into our wheelhouse,” Rivera said.

Black Hole and students and Bears, oh my

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