Stanford's stadium plan leaves Cal in the dust

By Mark Purdy
Mercury News Staff Columnist
If you can't beat them, outconstruct them. Stanford has always grasped the fundamentals.
Over the past three football seasons, Cal has chewed up Stanford and spit out little bits of Cardinal crumbs, winning the annual Big Game by a combined total of eight zillion to three. Or so it has seemed.
Ah, but now comes sweet revenge. Stanford is going to kick butt in new-stadium building.
In fact, it won't even be close. If this were a hot-dog-eating contest, Cal would already be in negative weiner amortization.
Sometime in the next few days, Stanford's board of trustees is expected to approve plans for a football facility that will cost between $80 million and $90 million. The new stadium will involve a major reinvention and remodeling of the current stadium, reducing the capacity from 85,500 to a more intimate 55,000.
Not only that, but there is apparently enough money and support to get things started and complete the project in time for the 2006 season. Demolition will begin after the final play of the 2005 season. The new structure will be completed in less than a year.
``There won't be any need to play home games at Spartan Stadium or SBC Park for even one season,'' says one voice who should know. ``The plan is to get it done by October of 2006 when the first Stanford home game is scheduled.''
Compare this, if you will, to the ongoing slog in Berkeley, where Memorial Stadium is desperately in need of repair. For the past five years, Cal administrators have been laboring to cobble together some sort of . . . well, some sort of general prospective plans for a possible new stadium that might be feasible. Potentially.
If only that were an exaggeration. Cal has tried to amp up the stadium fever to keep Coach Jeff Tedford from looking elsewhere. But the last official word from Cal on this topic occurred May 10. In a conference call with reporters, a Cal associate vice-chancellor named Tom Lollini said that construction on a football stadium would ``hopefully'' be under way in early 2007. But before that can happen, more money must be raised. Trouble is, there is no cost estimate yet for the project. There are also no specific design plans, although an architectural firm has been retained.
Still, associate vice-chancellor Lollini claimed that the framework for building a new stadium is ``on track.''
This appears to be true, in the same sense that the framework for Adam Sandler to win an Oscar is ``on track.''
Perhaps if you are an associate vice-chancellor, you know more than the average person. But here is how the situation looks from the outside:
As the Cal community has dithered and thrashed about in pursuit of a new stadium, the Stanford community has figured out a way to just get it done. Cal has had a five-year head start in the stadium chase, but Stanford is going to complete the details, get out the heavy equipment and be ready to open for business before Cal even breaks ground -- if ground is indeed ever broken.
And you want to know the hilarious part? This has happened before, with almost the exact same plotline.
Eighty-five years ago, neither Cal nor Stanford had a large stadium on campus. The Big Game was always played in San Francisco. So in the spring of 1921, Cal announced a campaign to build a football facility to honor World War I veterans. A million dollars was raised to get the project started. But bureaucratic procedures needed to be followed, slowing down the process.
Meanwhile, Stanford officials heard about the Cal plans and rushed into action. Stanford vowed to erect a new home for its own football team, and to complete it quicker. Three engineering professors drew up blueprints for a stadium. Teams of mules and men were assembled. A large oval-shaped hole was dug out on the campus' east edge. Bleachers were installed. Stanford Stadium was completed in four months, just in time for the 1921 Big Game.
Memorial Stadium in Berkeley did not open until November 1923.
Now, you could claim that Stanford has always had an unfair advantage in these things. Stanford is a private school and can move more rapidly without filling out as many forms and getting the approval of as many associate vice-chancellors.
You could also claim that Cal's stadium site is far more problematic, because it cuts into a hillside, straddles the Hayward Fault and needs significant earthquake mitigation.
But we all know the only factor that truly matters when big money is needed -- and that's the big money. Stanford is somehow able to find it. Cal is not. Stanford is the more gentrified school by reputation, but Cal has three times as many graduates -- and some of them are millionaires, too.
So it might be just a matter of style and culture. The new stadium project at Stanford is expected to be guided by John Arrillaga, the billionaire developer who has been Stanford's most loyal athletic contributor. When he steps up and offers to drive, Stanford hands him the keys.
That never could happen at Cal, where Arrillaga would be told to sit in the back seat and enjoy the ride while three associate vice-chancellors try to program the GPS device by the steering wheel. Forced to play under those rules, Arrillaga would probably not even climb in the car.
We can empathize with Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, who must navigate the UC red tape (and gold tape and blue tape). But she knew the job was dangerous when she took it -- which is why one person who has been involved with the Berkeley stadium quest says it could easily end with the Golden Bears playing their home games at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum in 2011, after the Raiders' lease expires.
By that time, Stanford's new stadium will already be six seasons old. Location, location, location.