The Cal High stadium’s new home bleachers and press box are finally finished.
After months of construction that began last December, the metal bleachers were completed just in time for kickoff to the football season against Patterson High on Aug. 30.
The “official” unveiling of the bleachers took place a week later during a ribbon-cutting ceremony before the game against James Logan on Sept 6.
“I am really, really excited about [the new bleachers],” Cal High Principal Demetrius Ball said.
Ball had the honors before the game of using a giant pair of scissors to snip the ceremonial ribbon alongside new Superintendent CJ Cammack.
The $3 million project expands home seating capacity by about 50%, with 1,700 fans now able to be seated compared to fewer than 1,200 in the old, dilapidated bleachers.
“They’re new, they’re bigger, they’re higher,” athletic director Chad Ross said. “We now have space to fit our full band and our student section next to each other.”
The new bleachers also come with emergency lighting as a safety measure for dark nights and an updated sound system to create a better experience. Unlike the old bleachers, the new ones are compliant with are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new bleachers have wider wheelchair access and are ADA-safety approved.
“We have to be in compliance with new state safety standards,” Ross said. “The previous bleachers weren’t up to standard.”
Cal physical education teacher Lenard Matthews said an additional advantage of the new bleachers is they will be easier to clean and maintain, since they are not made of wood.
“Long-term maintenance will be easier because you’re not dealing with wood rotting away,” Matthews said.
To support the project, the school used funds raised by Measure D, a 2015 parcel tax that helps maintain facilities in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, Ball said.
Renovation planning began because of structural issues with the press box. A land survey revealed that the old bleachers were sliding down the hill they were built on, creating safety concerns that had to be addressed, Ross said.
Initially, the project was meant to begin in fall 2023, but if construction would have started during last football season it would have limited seating capacity during games.
“If we started construction during last year’s football season, we wouldn’t have had the home bleachers to use,” Ross said. “Football has our biggest crowds, and we would’ve [not been able to] let people in.”
After the Grizzlies’ season was extended with playoffs, the start of the project was pushed back until December. This delay also led to a scare that graduation last June would be moved off campus since the home bleachers could not be used.
But the school was able to add more seats on the field and keep graduation ceremonies at the stadium.
So far, students and staff have enjoyed the new bleachers. Junior Elise Lee, who attended the James Logan game, likes how the new bleaches are more spacious.
“I didn’t feel like people were as squished compared to the old bleachers,” Lee said.
But others noted that not all the flaws with the old bleachers have been fixed.
“It’s a little frustrating that the speaker system didn’t seem to have changed that much,” senior Chase Weaver, leader of Cal’s 12th Man, said. “You just can’t really hear anything, like announcing and stuff, especially from the student section.”
Ball said there won’t be renovations for the away bleachers any time soon because they were replaced in 2015.
Now that the renovation of the bleachers is complete, students can enjoy attending athletics events with more safety and enjoyment.
“At Cal High, sports mean so much to people,” senior varsity football player Aiden Rumble said. “So it’s great that now people can return back to watching those sports and [the new bleachers are] even bigger and better than before.”
