Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - December 2014 - 32

Tailgating can be witnessed prior to kickoff
in the parking lot of a professional team's
stadium or on the lazy, sprawling campus any
revered alma mater.

the day. Towering electric lamps and
evening football games brought about
the practice of hosting all-day parties at
fans' homes, where they would congregate
and leisurely hop from house to house as
kickoff approached.
Night games were a critical social development, since they allowed for cooler
game-time temperatures, and for men
and women to dress up for the popular pregame parties. Women commonly
wore their best Sunday dresses adorned
with team-colored corsages, while men
frequently donned spiffy coats, ties,
derbies and fedoras.
These festive pregame jaunts continued unabated for 40 years or more
until daytime college football on tele-

DID YOU KNOW?

vision pre-empted the house parties
that previously were the norm. Along
with much-needed athletic department
revenue, TV coverage introduced the
return of the dreaded daytime football
games, which entirely precluded the
practice of party hopping around town
prior to the contest.
The alternative to not house partying
was simple to the legions of football fans
that were weaned on the ritual: Take the
party to the stadium! And that they did,
because even today, tailgating at or near
a stadium is a social practice that seems
to have found a continual flow of willing fall participants. Predictably, tailgating now occurs before night games
and day games as college football's fan

Up to $12 billion is spent on tailgating activities each year.
There are an estimated 50 million tailgaters in the United States.
■ 40% of tailgaters spend more than $500 per season on food and supplies.
■ 25% of tailgaters spend between $100 and $149 per gathering.
■ 2 out of 5 tailgaters start tailgating more than ﬁ ve hours before kickoff.
■ 50% of grill owners who have attended a tailgate in the past 12 months did
not actually go into the game.
Sources: Nationwide Insurance; 25th Annual Weber GrillWatch Survey
■
■

32 December 2014

base - and their propensity to tailgate - only grows with each passing
year. Tailgating, which has been dubbed
"the world's fastest-growing outdoor
sport," has become so popular that some
football fans enjoy it as much as the
game itself - and that's saying something, especially in the football-crazed
American heartland.
One often-overlooked or understudied aspect of tailgating is its name. Simple logic leads one to surmise that the
term describes the practice of having an
outdoor picnic on the tailgate of a truck
or station wagon, and this is largely understood to be true. However, no official
etymology of the American word exists,
further reinforcing the fledgling status
of this fast-growing sporting tradition.
Why is tailgating so popular? The answer to that question is that tailgating
has replaced the town or county fair as
the most anticipated outdoor main event.
In modern society, rarely do we congregate en masse with the opportunity
to see extended family and spur the reunion of lasting friendships like when we
tailgate. Some might say that it takes us
back to a much simpler time, before air
conditioning, when we were much more
friendly and sociable.
So when you see your customers
hitched up their family automobiles
prepared for pregame activities with
their numerous tailgating wares and
eats, remember that the modern cultural
ritual you are seeing fulfi lled on game
day is humbly rooted in the tumultuous
times following the Civil War.
Furthermore, remember that tailgating is the last great free-for-all and the
modern counterpart of the county fair
- where, with only a lint-filled pocket,
can you see and be seen along with some
of the most attractive and outgoing fans
of American food and sports.
Chris Warner is an Alabama-based writer and former radio talk show host. He
is the author of "A Tailgater's Guide To
SEC Football Vol. IV," and several other
books. To contact Chris, visit his website
at southernbeachreads.com.
SportsFan Retailer

http://www.southernbeachreads.com

Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - December 2014

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