Cal’s new floor features a giant snarling bear where its script logo used to be
Cal's historic script logo may have survived the school's rebranding process last month, but it won't be in its usual place at mid-court at Haas Pavilion next winter.
In its place will be an enormous stained version of the school's new secondary mark, a growling Golden Bear.
The script logo will still have a place on floor, with one going inside the 3-point arc on both ends of the court. In a thinly veiled effort to appease traditionalists by making it seem like the script logo isn't being de-emphasized, Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour insisted they will actually get more airtime this way because the majority of games take place inside the 3-point arc.
"We are excited about the new floor at Haas Pavilion," Barbour said. "The design enables us to increase exposure of our new visual identity while still maximizing exposure for the traditional Cal script. All of our visual identity elements are important brand assets and we believe this floor maximizes each of them."
As is often the case with court redesigns, reaction among Cal fans has been mixed so far on Monday afternoon.
"Say it ain't so," wrote one Cal fan on The Bear Insider. "Way too big of a logo, especially one that's not very good."
"It's not that bad," countered another. "If you have to put the new bear logo in the center, this is a good way to do it."
Even the critical Cal fans can take solace in that their school will never have the Pac-12's most grotesque basketball floor no matter how hard they try. That honor will go to Oregon, whose garish fir tree-framed floor remains the most polarizing in the nation.
