Friday, July 28, 2006

UGA Tailgaters: Make Room For Ned Flanders

I've been to enough UGA home games to know that alcohol-free tailgates are less than 1%, and this is way too much fucking space to be reserved for alcohol-free tailgaters. Prime-ass space at that. With that much room they can all bring a beach blanket, lie down and spread out.


Welcome to the Go-Giggely-Go Dawgs!-enest tailgate
in Athens, neighbor! Care for an O'Douls?


First the parking restrictions and traffic plan of a few years back, and now this. I guess as someone who attended UGA when football Saturdays were all about free-for-all anarchy, I see all of these new restrictions as the man being the man. I remember fondly walking to my morning classes and coming across RVs parked in the dorm parking lots (corner of Baxter & Lumpkin - I forget the name of that dorm Lipscomb Hall) tailgaiting and offering me beer and food... on Thursday mornings.

Here's an excellent writeup about the whole thing by PWD. I agree with damn near all his points. I am not saying that accomodating alcohol-free families is a bad thing per se. I am just saying that this seems to be overdoing it more than a wee bit. I imagine that there will be some hilarious scenes early in the year, especially at the first game. Shitfaced middle-aged Bubba hollerin' at the 20 year old campus police kid about how he has been tailgating at this spot since 1977 and challenging the dude to physically remove he and his buddies from said spot. "Do you know who I am?" An even funnier image to ponder is people using all of their tried and true methods to sneak in and covertly consume alcohol in the stadium at the tailgate. I can see people near the arch nervously scanning the horizon for cops and then quickly gunning a nice big gulp from their flask which resides tucked under their belt buckle. Will these be a better images for the innocent eyes of young Rod & Todd than what they have been seeing all these years? Should be very entertaining to watch for those of you who will be near these family zones.

Hell, some of my funniest and clearest tailgating memories were of random people, many of whom I had never met or didn't know, and their epic level of drunkenness. So are yours. Seriously - how many of you recall with fondness epic tailgate stories from seasons past that DIDN'T involve drunkenness? They ALL involve drunkenness, not "remember that nice couple we met from Clayton at the Carolina game back in '99, and we all did coloring books with their lovely children?"

I guess this fall I will lament living 3,000 miles from Athens a bit less on college football Saturdays, since my friends and I have always tailgated in that giant purple patch on North Campus near the Arch. I am sure that since they all live rather close to Athens that they are sufficiently pissed, since we always 1) drink but do not get out of control fall down drunk and 2) we pack up our trash. I heard from friends that last year's Auburn game was pretty out of control and that campus got trashed pretty good. Wouldn't the appropriate response be to put out a bunch more trash receptacles? Or take the extra security needed to police these areas and crack down on out of control drunks by citing them for public nuisance or something? Seems like everyone is being punished on account of a few bad apples. And what about self-policing? If you are tailgating and the people next to you are overly obnoxious, then move somewhere else; it's that simple - in those two areas you have already lugged all of your shit away from your car. That's what we all do everywhere else in life, so why not here? Just last weekend I went to the beach, lugged my shit down there, unpacked it all, and got settled, only to have these really obnoxious people set up shop next to me. So what did I do? I packed up all my shit and moved somewhere else. Not rocket science. It seems like once again Mr. Adams is playing politics with this.


There are two things that make a tailgate: pretty girls
and alcohol.
Why mess with a good thing?

This seems to me like one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of. Cutting 2 huge swaths of prime tailgating territory, one of which is at the gateway between campus and downtown Athens where they are 50 or so bars, decreeing that it is family friendly and alcohol free, and then policing it to keep alcohol and anyone drinking it out of said areas? Yeah, good luck with that.

What's next, banning of sundresses for all the beautiful women because they promote impure thoughts in all straight men who look upon them?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I get older and have my younguns with me, I can appreciate the 'family' zone. It is especially nice when you have no where else to go. I like the family sections in sports arenas, because you are less likely to run into the falling down drunk guy that is way over doing it. However, I agree with Kanu that if you are at a tailgate and you encounter said person, you do one of 2 things. Move or get some security dude to enforce the rules already on the books. When we tailgate at GT, we do it with people that drink. Heck my wife drinks. I think I am the only one who doesn't. Doesn't really bother me one bit. The part that would tick me off would be the no DJs rule. WTF? I remember going to Carolina games when I was a kid and my sister was in a sorority there. My parents dropped about $500-1000/weekend on food and beverage. There was always music, and a couple of times we had a band a the tailgate. I guess since bands are not excluded by the letter of the law, you could still have one.

Come on MDG, MA over react? That never happened at Centre. That's what Cari told me anyway.

Kanu said...

Alex-

Russell is up on the hill; I'mtalking about the little one down ont he corner of Baxter/Lumpkin. Hold on... Lipscomb is what I'm talking about. That little parking lot right there on the corner used to be hopping from Thursday a.m. all the way through to Sunday.

OMAA - agreed on the family zones... In the stadium. If I had little ones I would be down with these as well; it would make taking a theoretical little Kanu to a Braves game enjoyable, whereas I would never take a youngun to Fenway. Hell, I went to my first Red Sox game when I was 12 and it was hardcore for a 12 year old. But trying to legislate tailgating in the manner that they are talking about seems a fool's errand.

Live bands, sorority girls, a $1000 in food and drink? That makes even UNC football enjoyable; now I know how you came to be such a fan.

DAve said...

"What's next, banning of sundresses for all the beautiful women because they promote impure thoughts in all straight men who look upon them?"

Kanu, it is your civic frickin' DUTY to delete this part of your post before President Mickey happens on it and starts getting ideas.

If you choose not to, and I'm forced to gaze upon burkha-and-potato-sack-clad coeds starting next year, I'm holding you personally responsible.

Good post BTW.

shliknik said...

I completely agree with your sentiments about UGA's tailgating situation. I graduated in '01 (pre-Richt and winning SEC Championships...damnit!). I can fondly remember waking up in Rivermill Apts to 'Welcome to the Jungle' blaring form the double-decker (English style) bus parked in the huge lot next to the stadium. Campers would begin to park here on Wed/Thurs and would party until gametime. Us 'Rivermillians' would join them during the week. Now that lot is offlimits to tailgaters and folks no longer park next to the stadium.

ALSO, over the past few years, the # of security guards within the stadium has become ridiculous - party due to rushing the field in '00 and 9/11. I understand about the increase BUT I don't understand some of the things they do - waiting outside the restroom and sniffing drinks?? WTF???

I attended the UGA/SC game in Columbia in '04 and it was as close to an 'old-stype' UGA game that I can remember. We sat in the middle of the SC student section and had a blast!!! No security patrolling, students sitting in the aisle passing bottles of whiskey out in the open, and people generally having a good time.

Again...I understand some of the changes w/ UGA's tailgating situation, but I also know it's not as fun (and that doesn't have anything to do with me getting older). Too bad.

It does kinda sound like I'm an oldman, but UGA tailgating isn't the same and probably never will be.

Dawgnoxious said...

I still don't understand why they can't just regulate behavior. If people are drunk and obnoxious, arrest them. If people leave trash on campus, arrest them. The new gameplan is over-legislated and over-regulated. But, it is exactly what you would expect from a micro-managing, petty, spiteful, needledick sonofabitch like Mike Adams. I wouldn't piss on that sonofabitch if he was on fire, 'less I could piss gasoline.