Tail Gating
It is as Joe Cahn (self proclaimed Commissioner of Tailgating) called it “America’s last neighborhood”. For millions of Americans every football season begins a new chapter to the time honored tradition of attending football games hours before the gates open and eating, drinking and socializing without end. For millions more in America tailgating serves as a business of stable economic growth. Thousands of companies set up tents and trailers and promotional events in the lots at professional games all over the country. I personally have worked well over a dozen tailgating events, and my current employer conducts 35 percent of its business thru outdoor marketing events associated with football tailgating. These marketing promotions filled with giveaways for fans and marketing for capitalists create work everywhere in the country.
But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
That is what organizations like the New York Jets and Giants have begun to ask. For the first time this season Giants stadium (home to both the Jets and Giants) is limiting access to its parking lots. More specifically four hours before the game and four hours after is all fans are permitted to tail gate. There reason: alcohol consumption and potentially dangerous situations developing in the lots around the Meadowlands.
On September 14th I attended the Jets home game at the stadium against the Patriots. As a working vendor I was permitted access to the lot just outside gate D nine hours before kick off. But at 7:00am, when I entered the lot, fans were already lined up on the streets outside, waiting for lot attendants to allow them access. While talking to Jet fans I began to understand their perspective of disgust. As one fan told me “we only get 8 games a year as it is, and many of these folks here in the lots are like family”. The sprit, preparation, and creative influence all seem to be restricted by “The Man”. As if these fans haven’t suffered enough. With personal seat licenses, and the ticket boom from companies like Stub Hub, fans are already feeling the crunch.
However I also see the other perspective. It’s the perspective of ownership trying to avoid a NASCAR situation in the NFL. NASCAR tailgating is largely affective because of the nature of their events. Stock Car events are usually weekend long races with venues built on the outskirts of towns. Most Speedway parking lots are set up to accommodate fans in RV motor homes and tailgaters with a strong desire to linger. Where as Giants Stadium, for example, is just 9.42 miles from down town Manhattan.
However a big part of this new mandate is not for the safety of fans. It's not to promote responsible drinking, and its not proximity of stadiums to cities, really. It's because beer revenue is down inside the turnstiles and up out in the lots. Ownership revenue is the most important thing in professional sports.
Period.
But what can fans do?
Owners hold all the cards. So as much as I enjoy tail gating myself and count on it as part of my livelihood, it would seem as though the tradition has reached its peak. I expect more of the same to follow. More teams and more cities will begin to limit the access of parking lots for Tail Gaters and fans.
It seems as though even America’s last neighborhood has a timetable to extinction.
