Good News All Around: Cal To Play at AT&T Park in 2011; Tightwad Hill Going Nowhere

Vance Cardell

Cal topped Miami, 24-17, in the 2008 Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park

​Like many folks with a media e-mail account, your humble narrator received the word Monday that Cal will be playing its home football games at AT&T Park in 2011 -- or whatever Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T Park is called at that time.

This is a good thing: Your humble narrator has watched more football games at AT&T Park than most people and can report that it is an excellent venue for the game. Since the Bears are committed to rebuilding Memorial Stadium atop an exposed earthquake fault and must abandon their home stadium for a year, there's no better place for them to end up locally than AT&T. Other sites considered, we're told, include Candlestick Park (emphatic no) and the Oakland Coliseum (the evil spirit of Al Davis ... wait, you mean he's still alive?).

Yes, AT&T is two-thirds the size of Memorial Stadium. Yes this will ruin the stumble-up-for-a-game vibe typical of a venue placed in the middle of a residential campus. Yes, there will be no place that drunken, stoned, miscreants can watch the game, for free.

Vance Cardell

Future Detroit Lion Jahvid Best (No. 4) en route to a touchdown and 186 rushing yards in the '08 Emerald Bowl

​Of course, I'm referencing Tightwad Hill. But, according to Cal sports Media Relations higher-up Herb Benenson -- whose been dishing out good information since yours truly was a freshman reporting for The Daily Californian -- Tightwad Hill will be back.

"There are no plans to alter the East side of the stadium," he noted. "The plans are all on the West side." This, ostensibly, means that those perched atop Tightwad Hill will still be able to peer into the new Memorial Stadium following its future renovations.

Let's hope he's right. The Tightwad Hill experience -- a drunken, raucous, piss-on-the-fence, injury-prone afternoon with serene views of the city and damn good football sightlines -- is so much fun it's amazing someone hasn't found a way to make money off it or simply ruin it for everyone.