Memorial Stadium - University of California, Berkeley
Posted by: 
Squirreleen
N 37° 52.256 W 122° 15.043
10S E 565900 N 4191759
This is the heart of the "Blue and Gold" and home to the CAL Bear football team. It opened in 1923 and seats approximately 75,000 fans.
Waymark Code: WM43XC
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/03/2008
Views: 88
24. CALIFORNIA MEMORIAL STADIUM, seating capacity 78,000, was built in 1923 at a cost of $1,750,000, in memory of students who died in the World War. Football, soccer, and rugby games, and commencement exercises are held here.
California A Guide to the Golden State, 1939, p. 187.
Perhaps discovered since the guide was written, the active Hayward Earthquake fault runs right underneath the Memorial Stadium, and evidence of the movement along the fault is visible in the structure. The structure was given a “poor” rating in terms of safety. Several years ago, seismic repairs were estimated around $14 million—a bit more expensive than the original construction cost!
Until a few years ago the Memorial Stadium was simply the home of Cal football games which alternately please and annoy residents because of the hoards of alumni who flock into the already traffic-congested city.
Recently, however, the University has proposed a stadium expansion which was slated to begin in 2006, and claimed it did not have to abide by a state prohibition on construction within the fault zone (Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act). However, lawsuits filed by the City of Berkeley, residents of nearby Panoramic Hill and the California Oak Foundation halted the project with a court injunction. The project would have also removed an historic grove of oak trees west of the stadium which are apparently a native burial site. A group of “tree-sitters” occupied the grove beginning on the "Big Game" day in December 2006. This group has included professional activists, City of Berkeley council members and officials, and civil rights luminaries.
The University has responded with a heavy-hand and cordoned off the area with fencing and police and attempted to forcibly remove the tree-sitters. At the moment (July 2008), you can’t get within a hundred feet of the stadium without encountering a barbed-wire topped fence or a police guard. Even members of the press are harshly warned away from the site.
It remains to be seen how this particular drama regarding the stadium plays out.
Book: California
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 187
Year Originally Published: 1939
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