Gameday tailgating has disappeared

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Originally Posted by Champ967

It seems some folks think that gameday would be more fun if the product on the field were more compelling.

While I agree that a winning team is part of a great gameday, I'd submit that one can exist even when the team sucks. (And conversely, that a even a fun team does not, on its own, yield a great gameday experience.)

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I agree with this.

There's a kind of inertia as well. If a good culture exists, the product on the field can go through a dry spell and everything survives until the next season.

If the culture has intentionally been dismantled, and the play is also poor/radically mediocre, there's less energy or incentive to put in the necessary work to rebuild the gameday experience (even assuming that there are no artificial and intentional obstacles to rebuilding).

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Originally Posted by Champ967

It seems some folks think that gameday would be more fun if the product on the field were more compelling.

While I agree that a winning team is part of a great gameday, I'd submit that one can exist even when the team sucks. (And conversely, that a even a fun team does not, on its own, yield a great gameday experience.)

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No, an exciting team is just part of the formula. Gamedays have to be easy and fun and it used to be that, just get to the stadium early, wander through all of the tailgates, visit, drink, and get charged up. That does not happen any more, I would argue that this crowd has gotten a little older and maybe laid back and the young people coming on have been conditioned to this new game day. Winning does help though and playing like we did in the WAC days helps also. We spent the preceding week talking smack on this board with Sunday Jam, Mean Green, super purple cat, and the likes, everyone all had a lot of anticipation for these games.

You are correct, exciting team is not the only ingredient, we are missing several, exciting team is just one of them. Do we need an exciting team to bring rabid fans in or do we need rabid fans to keep the team charged up and exciting?

I personally know a lot of young alumni who absolutely could not care less about Tech Athletics. Many of them grew up and now live and work 50-60 miles from Ruston or less. They went home on weekends, some even worked in their home towns after classes let out. No on campus life at all. No sports. No local church attendance. I think the number of people coming, getting an education and leaving without ever investing is growing.

Thanks Skip

Losers going home to see momma and high school friends on the weekend. I had a roommate my freshman year who went home to Lake Charles every weekend. He went home for mom and high school friends. Eventually, he ended up dropping out and moving back home.

Being from El Dorado, I rarely visited home. Spent my time at Tech playing in the band for FB or basketball, partied at Rabb's/Que Stick, attended house parties, participated in intramurals. There are stuff to do on campus and in Ruston.

I don't know what it will take to change the culture.

https://twitter.com/EWOOD_AD/status/1441497077733748736

Declining balance and TechXpress now able to be used in the stadium

Something I was wondering about WAY BACK when I was a freshman.

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Originally Posted by qng001

Losers going home to see momma and high school friends on the weekend. I had a roommate my freshman year who went home to Lake Charles every weekend. He went home for mom and high school friends. Eventually, he ended up dropping out and moving back home.

Being from El Dorado, I rarely visited home. Spent my time at Tech playing in the band for FB or basketball, partied at Rabb's/Que Stick, attended house parties, participated in intramurals. There are stuff to do on campus and in Ruston.

I don't know what it will take to change the culture.

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LOL! Even though I grew up in a small town only 35 miles from Ruston, I still remember my mom getting very mad at me for not coming home my entire 1st qtr. She was like, "It's only 35 miles!". LOL! But I was having so much fun, it never even crossed my mind to drive home.

We didn’t even have tailgating (I think haha) in the 80s. No cell phones, no internet, TV was ok.. Campus life and relationships were more authentic. And the NLU games were freaking barnburners.

Seems there are so many distractions from being present game day.

I think it would take a sustained concerted effort by administration to build up a real tailgating tradition, but I wonder if there is the will to do it, especially now that they have their fancy South end zone palace?

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Originally Posted by Rama Jama

We didn’t even have tailgating (I think haha) in the 80s. No cell phones, no internet, TV was ok.. Campus life and relationships were more authentic. And the NLU games were freaking barnburners.

Seems there are so many distractions from being present game day.

I think it would take a sustained concerted effort by administration to build up a real tailgating tradition, but I wonder if there is the will to do it, especially now that they have their fancy South end zone palace?

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As long as big donors and corporate sponsorships are there, the rest won’t matter.

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Originally Posted by Rama Jama;[URL="tel:1811802"

1811802[/URL]]We didn’t even have tailgating (I think haha) in the 80s. No cell phones, no internet, TV was ok.. Campus life and relationships were more authentic. And the NLU games were freaking barnburners.

Seems there are so many distractions from being present game day.

I think it would take a sustained concerted effort by administration to build up a real tailgating tradition, but I wonder if there is the will to do it, especially now that they have their fancy South end zone palace?

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Originally Posted by techman05

As long as big donors and corporate sponsorships are there, the rest won’t matter.

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Does the above intend to indicate that a major portion of the tailgaters are now up in the DAC or up in the Press-box Taj Mahal?

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Originally Posted by ChipDog

Does the above intend to indicate that a major portion of the tailgaters are now up in the DAC or up in the Press-box Taj Mahal?

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I wrote my comment envisioning a full parking lot from Tech Drive to the TAC.

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Originally Posted by Rama Jama

We didn’t even have tailgating (I think haha) in the 80s. No cell phones, no internet, TV was ok.. Campus life and relationships were more authentic. And the NLU games were freaking barnburners.

Seems there are so many distractions from being present game day.

I think it would take a sustained concerted effort by administration to build up a real tailgating tradition, but I wonder if there is the will to do it, especially now that they have their fancy South end zone palace?

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Started in the late 80s

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Originally Posted by techman05

Their gray shirt really made them stand out last week. Looked like they were on bleacher camo.

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The BOP students were asked what they wanted to wear with regards to polos and caps. They chose the Grey polos and maybe that wasn't the best choice on their part as far as the looks but it is definitely the current fashion trend. I must say the New Era Red Caps with excellent embroidery are outstanding :)!

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

Started in the late 80s

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Yep. 1989 - the first season in I-A. Keith Prince moved over from the SID position for a year to two to a marketing position where he started an organized tailgating effort and organized alumni groups for past teams in all sports.

All they really had to do was create tailgating tent and food contests and really push it in the media. We played our first 5 games on the road that year. When we came home everyone was shocked at how the fanbase had gotten into it for the first home game - a blowout win over a good NIU team.

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Originally Posted by JDubyadawg

The BOP students were asked what they wanted to wear with regards to polos and caps. They chose the Grey polos and maybe that wasn't the best choice on their part as far as the looks but it is definitely the current fashion trend. I must say the New Era Red Caps with excellent embroidery are outstanding :)!

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I believe they are just T-Shirts. No polos.