When the California Golden Bears football team hired Oregon’s Tosh Lupoi, it had more to do than just upgrading the defense. Lupoi came with an SEC, NFL, and Big Ten pedigree along with his California roots, and the expectation was for him to lift Cal’s competitiveness in the ACC. Now, just weeks into his tenure, there are already signs that the energy shift is happening.

Cal Athletics announced that the Field Club season tickets are now officially sold out! The most expensive option, and yet the waitlist is already growing. This is a rare development for a program that hasn’t won an outright conference title since 1958. And for a fan base that has grown rather hesitant, this just screams belief, and this belief translates to better finances, and it’s something they need now.

Cal needs the stadium revenue desperately. The stadium cost the program a whopping $321 million to renovate, and the athletic center cost $153 million. Reports now highlight that the stadium’s debt alone absorbs around 20% of Cal’s $89 million athletics budget, and for now, the team isn’t even paying the principal. When that happens in 2032, the program will have to pay $26 million annually. In total, the program is $445 million in debt, and the stadium revenue needs to increase swiftly to offset it.

But attracting folks to the 63,000-seater Cal Memorial Stadium had been a Herculean challenge for the team under Justin Wilcox. Before joining the ACC in August 2024, the Golden Bears were averaging 37,082 fans in the Pac-12. However, after the ACC move, despite the team playing slightly better on the field, the attendance dropped by 4%. That’s 1,555 fewer fans per game during Cal’s two years in the ACC.

Golden Bears’ GM Ron Rivera also raised a problem publicly and aims to build Cal into a football brand. “If you’re honest about this, there are two things at this point,” Rivera outlined. “One is we’re being evaluated by butts in the seats, eyeballs on television, and wins and losses — 33 1/3 %.” In 2024, Cal ranked 10th in the ACC in attendance, despite having some major games.

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Against Miami, Justin Wilcox’s team almost pulled off an upset. The team held a 35-10 lead late in the third quarter but eventually lost by 1 point. Thereafter, against Stanford, the Bears came from behind to win 24-21 on a late scoring drive. The Stanford game showed that having a bigger crowd matters more than one can envision, since if not for the crowd’s support, Cal wouldn’t have overcome an 11-point deficit against Stanford.

“One of the biggest jobs I have is to try to create resources. Going out working with the donors, working with the alumni so we can, so that we can procure the things that we need to be successful,” Rivera said. “Because this is an NFL market. I bring it up because this is the fifth-largest market in the NFL, I believe, maybe the fourth, but it’s the top five. Think about that. TV market, eyeballs. Just in this specific market.”

In this NIL era, all a team needs is some experienced names on its roster and to put a better product on the field. Cal can easily tap into California’s rich NIL base and donors to do that with Rivera’s help. Rivera himself is a Seaside, California native and has spent the majority of his career in the NFL. Additionally, Tosh Lupoi’s in-state roots can help in recruiting and make a Curt Cignetti-esque winning squad. People will flock to games from the Bay Area automatically. For now, selling out the Club Season tickets is a major step towards that.

Tosh Lupoi has returned to his home at Cal and plans big for the team

Tosh Lupoi is a Cal alum and played as a DL from 2000 to 2005. Then he became DLs coach for the team in 2008 and stayed with the program till 2011. Additionally, he is a Walnut Creek, California native and grew up in the Bay Area, playing football at La Salle High School in Concord. That in-state and past connection with the program has been received positively among Cal fans, and people now look eagerly to his tenure.

Moreover, Lupoi has worked under two of the best head coaches of college football. Nick Saban and Kirby Smart at Alabama from 2016 to 2018. As a result, the 44-year-old’s Bama tenure brought out the best in him, and he won the 247 Sports recruiter of the year award. Both at Tuscaloosa and in Eugene, Lupoi was credited with bringing West Coast talent, something Cal could do easily now.

That showed when Lupoi personally visited Cal QB1 Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and made him stay at Cal amid transfer rumors. “I immediately tapped into all the Cal alum resources literally in the air, hoping to attempt to find where he’s at, where his family’s at, and to see if I could organize a meeting,” Lupoi said. “I think that was a solid first impression for both of us. … Reinforcing what Cal means.”

Cal seems to be truly waking up from its dormant state to win big under Tosh Lupoi. He’s, of course, the defensive maestro we saw at Oregon. But as an in-state loyal and a former player, Lupoi’s connections with fans would be unprecedented. The goal is to take Cal away from 5-6 win seasons to 9-10 win seasons. The eyeballs will come in automatically.