Internet gambling companies have noticed that the California football team will be playing their home games at AT&T Park in 2011. Whether the Bears get the same type of home field advantage in online gambling at the San Francisco Giants home park will be something to watch in 2011.
Internet gambling companies always keep track of things that can affect the college football odds. Moving from Memorial Stadium to AT&T Park is going to be a big change for California. It is only a temporary move but the Bears will be playing in the Giants home park until renovations on Memorial Stadium are completed. San Francisco Giants president Larry Baer is a 1980 graduate from California so he was happy to help his school. “In many ways for us it’s a neighborly act. We do not plan on being a football venue that is long term every year. But certainly if we can help out, we can help out the University of California in 2011 in a way that allows for a compelling football experience. This is not unprecedented.”
The difference that immediately will be noted by those in online gambling is the amount of fans. Memorial holds just over 71,000. The Bears will be doing good to get 45,000 into AT&T Park. The school is really only concerned about their season ticket holders and they have about 38,000 of those. Getting those fans into the park should not be a problem. Visiting teams are going to get fewer tickets for their fans and single-game tickets to home games may be a tough find. And if the San Francisco Giants make the playoffs next year in baseball the Bears may have to move some games around in October.
California has done their homework on the Giants home ballpark. Cal coach Jeff Tedford has measured different parts of the park and informed the Giants of changes that he thought needed to be made. “The Giants have been very helpful in this process to have us out to look around,” Tedford said. “This provides us a great home-field advantage similar to Memorial Stadium.”
Internet gambling companies are aware that the goal is for California to play their 2012 season back at Memorial Stadium. Not everything will be done by then but the university is confident the team will be able to move “back home” for 2012. The Bears will be playing at Memorial Stadium this year even though some of the work will already have begun.