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tailgating at Baylor
- Thread starter isubeatle
- Start date
The standard orientation would be more effective:
Floyd Casey Stadium, Burnett Avenue, Waco, TX - Google Maps
Not disagreeing, but apparently in Waco the streets are not parallel/perpendicular to the compass directions in this neighborhood, so to make things square (a neater map), they alinged the streets to the paper edges. I've seen it done before.
I recently spoke with Chad in Baylor's AD about my tailgating spot when renewing. They have 300 full season spots (which are 30'x30') sold so far with quite a few more requested for individual games.
I'm with the other Baylor fan on here. When you came in 2008, the Baylor admin was still, in my opinion, "anti-tailgating." They didn't provide any place to do it and, seemingly, actively discouraged it. For example, we had several tailgates that were disturbed or ended by golf cart security. Also, you were not allowed to tailgate in any of the "donor parking" because they limited the amount of passes per person. (I could not up my donation and get another pass, for example.) You could still have made it happen, but my point is, the admin did not support or try to develop the little activity that there was going on.
Beginning in 2009, they added about 100 30'x30' spots and ran cable/electric to each. I think the intro price was $150-200 for the year. It was such a sweet deal, that I immediately jumped on it. It's awesome that I can have a few fans, a few TVs, etc, all hooked up without generators, satellites, etc.
The demand has grown immensely since then. They had about 200 spots last year and now have sold 300 for this season.
It's certainly not to the level of ISU or anything like that, but it's a good pre-game environment now. Plus, just generally speaking, there is a whole lot more excitement about the program than there was 3-4 years ago when Briles had just gotten here.
Hope you can make it down and see the change.
I'm with the other Baylor fan on here. When you came in 2008, the Baylor admin was still, in my opinion, "anti-tailgating." They didn't provide any place to do it and, seemingly, actively discouraged it. For example, we had several tailgates that were disturbed or ended by golf cart security. Also, you were not allowed to tailgate in any of the "donor parking" because they limited the amount of passes per person. (I could not up my donation and get another pass, for example.) You could still have made it happen, but my point is, the admin did not support or try to develop the little activity that there was going on.
Beginning in 2009, they added about 100 30'x30' spots and ran cable/electric to each. I think the intro price was $150-200 for the year. It was such a sweet deal, that I immediately jumped on it. It's awesome that I can have a few fans, a few TVs, etc, all hooked up without generators, satellites, etc.
The demand has grown immensely since then. They had about 200 spots last year and now have sold 300 for this season.
It's certainly not to the level of ISU or anything like that, but it's a good pre-game environment now. Plus, just generally speaking, there is a whole lot more excitement about the program than there was 3-4 years ago when Briles had just gotten here.
Hope you can make it down and see the change.
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When we there in '08 there was plenty of space to tailgate, there was just nobody doing it. We parked right outside of the stadium and had plenty of space to set up. There were a handful of small tailgates in the donor lots, and the administration didn't seem to be stopping any body.
It looked to me like nothing more than lack of interest. I don't doubt your assertion that the interest has gone up, but I didn't see any barricades by your admins. The general public can park right freaking next to your stadium. I don't think any other Big 12 school provides that.
Fair enough as that was your experience. I think by 2008 things were getting a bit better. I don't disagree on the parking- it's a good feature.
However, I've had plenty of problems in the past that I don't think a one time visitor would notice.
In fact, my experiences were so bad during undergrad that we had stopped tailgating by the time I graduated ('05) after having tailgates for every game several years earlier. Students caught drinking at the stadium were turned over not only to the university displinary council, but also to the respective state authorities. In my years, I saw several instances where troopers were called by Baylor security to the stadium to issue minor in possession charges to students tailgating. And never once were the tailgaters being obnoxious or out of control.
I also saw several fraternities have their chapter rights threatened to be pulled by the InterFraternity Council for having official and "unofficial" tailgates where alcohol was provided. ("Unofficial" being defined as having too many members of a certain fraternity at the same "event" thereby giving the appearance of an "official" event. I am not kidding.)
In fact, it got so bad in the early 2000s that we would "rent" the backyards of some of the houses around the stadium so as not to be discovered.
But you could maybe, possibly, sorta in a way justify some of that because it could encourage underage drinking. But that didn't stop the admin back then.
I was at a tailgate around 2005 where everyone was of legal drinking age. Campus security saw beer cans in the bed of a pickup and required (under the threat of non-admission to the game and removal from the property) that all of the alcohol in the presence of security be poured out. I watched in horror as the ground drank nearly an entire bottle of crown and way too many beers due to what amounted to a security guard with a power trip. It's why, for years, we only drank our beer out of plastic cups for fear that we'd get the gustapo treatment again. And many, if not most, still do you'll notice.
Combine all of that- as negative as it was- with a horrid football team for a decade and it's no surprise that people don't tailgate.
I remember when we got our new spot in 2009 I would invite alums to tailgate and they would turn me down because they said they "wouldn't be able to drink." We're not talking about students. We're talking about grown men feeling unable to drink in a parking lot. And it's all because Baylor set that precedent for years and years. It's the primary reason George's Tent across from the stadium did so well.
Fortunately, nowadays, Baylor has learned to turn a blind eye to drinking as long as you aren't causing any problems. And, combined with nudges like cable and electricity, tailgating is growing enormously.
I had a buddy from Illinois come down for a game last year. He hadn't been to the stadium since 2005 when he left. He commented that it was like a "real college football game" and that it was "about damn time."
And he was 100% right.
But the horrible experiences- both on the field and off- for nearly a decade did a lot of damage that is just now being overcome.
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And, for what it's worth, I'm not trying to defend what was a very crappy fanbase for 10 years. That I fully acknowledge. But I think it goes deeper than that because there were folks- like me- that had horrid experiences when we tried to get tailgating going many years ago.