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If I didn't know this guy personally, I might not believe it, but I have a friend who tailgates the entire game.  He goes to the game without tickets, pays to park in the orange lot (he is using my parking passes this year) and stays there during the whole game, just hanging out, drinking and eating, while the game is going on.

Do you tailgate?

For me, since I have traditionally gone to a lot of games, I don't do it every time.  When I tailgate, it turns football into an 8 hour event, not to mention that you're completely worn out when you get home.  I do tailgate every time I go to an away game and there are certain big games I'll do it too.

I will probably do more this year, since I have friends that are into it.

I hope the guy who spends the whole time in the parking lot at least has a TV. LOL That would not be worth it to me. I guess I am stuck on cooking at home and watching the game on a 60" plasma.

I have never done the tailgating without going to the game gig for a pro game.   But did do it a few times for college games. 

And I had friends who did it a lot for college games.  They didn't like football.  They liked getting drunk in parking lots.   While I liked football, I liked hanging out with the drunk girls in the parking lot more than watching football.  As the party scene in the parking lot during the games was a lot more women than men.  Before and after the game the party scene was more even. 

It wasn't really a matter of getting tickets, either.  The games never sold out and tickets only cost $2.  And no the games weren't on TV, they were on the college radio.

It depends...

Since this is the Around the NFL forum - I like tailgating before football games.  If I go to every game, its just not worth the money to tailgate every time.  It requires planning ahead, night-before preparation, and shopping.  So, if I go to games, I'd like there to be tailgating, but its such a huge hassle.

It's a hassle but I always have fun when I do it. BBQ, corn hole, friends and football

I am going on my 12th year as a season ticket holder for the Cardinals. When they were out at Sun Devil Stadium we did not tailgate all that often because our parking was on the blacktop, it was 115 degrees outside, and we had to sit in the hot Arizona sun for 3-4 hours for the game as well.

As soon as they moved to the new stadium in Glendale we have tailgated every single game without fail. We have parking on one of the practice fields on the grass which makes a huge difference. My buddy's truck has a locking cover on it so it is designated as the tailgate truck so we do not have to load and unload every week before and after the games. We have to load the coolers, the food, and the TV. Everything else is already in the truck. Being as the stadium is now air conditioned it makes the experience of tailgating more enjoyable because we get relief from the heat and the sun. We usually arrive about 4 hours before game time (which is always the afternoon games when they are at home) to grill, watch the early games, play cornhole or ladder golf, and usually toss back a few coldies. It is me and 3 buddies so it is nice to make a day of it and get away from the wives and kids for the day.

Please explain the economic of this.

I find the cost of store bought cans of beer and store bought hotdogs consumed in parking lot to be considerably cheaper than draft beer and cooked hot dog purchased at the stadium.  You gotta eat sometime.  Much cheaper to eat in the parking lot before and after the game than in the stadium during the game. 

It's easier to grab something at home and enjoy a leisure morning than get to the stadium by 9 AM

But that time doesn't have to be at the stadium. You can't go 3-5 hours without eating?

With traffic, parking etc. closer to 10-12 hours.  I live 2+ hours from the stadium when there isn't a game about 4 hours on game day.  And at the end of the game you can leave right away and spend 1.5 hours in traffic to travel 4 miles or spend 2 hours tailgating and sail right out of the stadium. I would rather choose the latter. 

I only go every few years.  But tailgate both before and after.

We used to stay after as well. We would fire the grill back up and hang out for quite awhile. 2 seasons ago they decided they wanted the parking lots cleared within an hour of the end of the game. They have little parking lot nazis that come around to make sure you do not start to grill anything or toss the football or anything really. We generally walk back to the truck open the chips and the dip and wait for the area to clear a little before we jump in and head home. That kind of sucks and a lot of people have bitched about it to no avail.

OK, so you have that kind of travel. I know I asked if you can't eat for 3-5 hours but I was referring more to Brian's assumed travel time since you posed the question to him first.

Even if you eat something at the stadium, you can get something fairly reasonable for about 10 bucks.  It's not that crazy expensive, so long as you aren't drinking a bunch of beer (which I almost never do).  I just can't bring myself to pay 8 bucks for 12 OZ of Bud Light.

I tailgate at every game I go to, home or away.

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That makes no sense. Why would they care if you are waiting for the traffic to clear? What is the reasoning on hiring parking lot nazis?

^^^ I can think of a couple reasons why it makes sense. The longer people hang around, the longer they have to keep security and police paid because they will need to keep patrolling. Also, the longer a group of drunks are allowed to congregate after a game, the more potential there is for problems to arise.

They aren't focused on running out people minding their own business. They are trying to set employees free and are also trying to limit problems from the troublemakers. In order to do this effectively, everyone needs to clear out.

I honestly don't know. The only thing I can think of was they were having some problems with certain groups of assholes wanting to continue to drink and cause problems long after the game had ended and it was probably costing them to keep security around and the city to have the police presence. I never really got an explanation from  anyone.

****modified to add****

Pretty much exactly what Phish said......I read that after I posted lol.

^^ I can think of a couple more. They probably have someone come in and clean up the parking lot and they want you out of there before they start. They also probably need to lock the gates and stuff. There's probably lots of reasons they don't want people tailgaiting till midnight. Now 1 hour after the game is over seems a bit harsh, but I can definately see them putting a certain time on it.