It’s been in with the new at the University over the last few semesters, with facilities such as the Nursing Building and Gogue Performing Arts Center making their mark on the south end of campus. It’s also been out with the old as RV tailgaters, some of Auburn’s most devoted fans, witness the erasure of one of their favorite pastimes.
Construction on Lem Morrison Drive, South Donahue Drive and the Hayfield area, as well as a policy change regarding when some fans can park their RVs, is causing anger among long-time tailgating families.
“For many years, we’ve been able to come on in Thursdays [before gameday], and now they’ve pushed us to Fridays,” said Joe McElvy, a 1986 Auburn graduate from Lanett, Alabama, and tailgater for over 30 years. “Not only have they pushed us out away from the campus, they’ve also decreased our time here at Auburn.”
The change came after the addition of 300 new parking spaces in the Hayfield area and 300 more north of the Gogue Performing Arts Center, according to a statement provided by Parking Services to The Plainsman.
Before the home games cheerleader's families host a tailgate in Auburn, Ala. on Oct. 22, 2016.
“The Auburn University Board of Trustees approved [the] project for the expansion of parking on the campus at their meeting on Apr. 12, 2019,” the statement read. “With the addition of over 600 new spaces to already existing 300 student parking spaces in the Hayfield area, safety concerns required a change in the day and time that RVs would be allowed to set up in the Hayfield.”
The arrival date was moved from the Thursday before a home game to Friday at 2 p.m. before the game, according to the statement. Tailgaters say this shift, however, limits the time they’d like to spend in town because of the time needed to set up their RV.
Michael Garber, who has tailgated with his Tiger Prowler bus at every home game for years, is one fan who feels like he and his friends have less preparation time.
“Last year, we showed up on Thursday at 2 p.m. At that point, there’s not that big hustle and bustle going on, so we would practice going to Walmart and buying stuff there and downtown to buy stuff there,” Garber said. “Now, we have to kinda prepare at home and come in prepared ready to go because this doesn’t give us enough time to get everything ready.”
The potential impact to local commerce is another issue the fans believe arises from increasingly limited time and space for tailgating.
With a growing number of restrictions on when and where they can park, visitors are unable to dine and shop during operating hours for businesses.
“I got here at 8:30 on Thursday night because of [the changes],” said KC Fox of Columbus, Georgia, who has tailgated in Auburn for the past four years. “It has to be impacting the businesses here. It’s almost to where I don’t even feel like coming. We didn’t come to the last game because of it.”
Fox said the previous time slot gave him and his family almost three days in Auburn when they set up their tailgate on Thursday evenings. This year has given them less than two, accounting for the average length of the games on Saturdays.
According to Charming Oaks, some stores have taken a hit during the last couple of football seasons with the newer rules driving customers away.
“You had those people that tailgated every game, every year and they’ve done it for years, you had your repeat customers,” said Shelby Cohan, owner of Charming Oaks. “Now, you don’t see people coming down with their dogs and walking around. We used to have so many two years ago that brought their dogs that I kept water bottles and dog treats.”
Cohan said that business varies in her experience depending on whether a game is during the day or night, in addition to how many home games there are in a season.
“[Three games being at night this season] has helped, because if these had been day games and you lose your tailgaters, you lose a lot of business on a Saturday,” she said. “When you look at October and there’s not a home game, we’re all going to be as dry as we can be, but November will be great.”
Other downtown outlets such as Mellow Mushroom reported that while their income has been stable, they have noticed fewer visitors to Auburn for the purposes of either being near or going to games.
“Because of the restrictions on tailgating and the increase in prices for tickets and parking spaces on campus, I’ve heard of less people coming to town in general,” said Adam Nemeroff, general manager of the restaurant. “Sometimes they are coming to town but not necessarily going to the game. Back five to ten years ago, a ‘home football weekend’ meant Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe Thursday even. But with restrictions on time, the money aspect, the traffic, these people are coming to Auburn for one day — [they] drive in and then drive out.”
Tailgate Guys is a service that has its roots in Auburn and is an alternative to the “first-come, first-served” style of tailgating affected by changes imposed by Parking Services. It allows customers to either reserve a tent on campus or an RV parking space in one of several areas on the outer edges of University property.
A total of 58 season-long passes are available, priced from $1,200 to $2,100, according to Mayor Ron Anders, who serves as the company’s director of special projects alongside his role in city government.
With a guaranteed spot for each game, many of its clients are more lax on their arrival on home game weekends, he said.
“We’re still allowing our guests to come in on Thursday at 2 p.m., and I would say, by and large, less than half will show up on Thursday, and most will come on Friday afternoon,” Anders said.
In its 11 years of existence, the service has maintained a strong relationship with the University, with both founders being Auburn graduates, and has worked in tandem with administration to ensure business continues despite construction on the south side of campus, according to Anders.
“That hasn’t affected our footprint because we don’t manage any of that area on [the Hayfield] side of the road,” he said. “This year has been a unique year because of the additional construction on campus that has mandated that we move some of our tailgaters from the main area around the campus green to some other spots.”
People like John Cristiano, of Alpharetta, Georgia, said they’re pleased with the services provided by Tailgate Guys.
“It’s such a great thing to know that you have a spot, and it doesn’t matter what time you roll in — it’s your spot,” Cristiano said.
Some veteran tailgaters who still make use of the free lots are not so receptive to the concept. Cindie Powell, an Auburn resident, has tailgated the last 10 years and has remained in constant contact with staff in Facilities Management as RV regulations have become intensified.
“It’s expensive,” she said. “Yes, we could go in together, but why would my family from Birmingham drive two and a half hours to get here, pay $60 to park, rent a tent for the day and then drive back home? We could be here [with our RV] sleep and shower, spend our money in town, buy university memorabilia and give money back to the University.”
Elliott Lamb, of LaGrange, Georgia, and his wife, Kerron, are two other fans who have used Tailgate Guys for the last four years of their time tailgating.
Before then, as Auburn students, they worked with the College of Agriculture to claim a spot on Lem Morrison Drive.
“We have our same spot every year, and we’re able to invite family and friends,” Elliott said. “They always know where we are, and we’re not fighting somebody else for our spot.”
Kerron said she has noticed a difference in tailgating culture today from when she was a student 10 years ago and the environment on campus for home game weekends.
“It was truly a party atmosphere when we were in school,” she said. “[Tommy] Tuberville would come around and talk to people. The band would come out, and one morning they woke up my in-laws by playing the fight song right outside the camper. It’s a different setup now.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by the veteran tailgaters as well, who noted that Auburn is the only university in the Southeastern Conference that has continued to provide an ideal setting for on-campus tailgating into the present.
“People from Georgia, Alabama and LSU come here because this is what it’s all about, and they’re jealous because they don’t have this,” Powell said.
247Sports.com ranked the University at the top spot in its list of ten best college football locations for the 2019 season, ahead of the University of South Carolina and the University of Georgia. A member of John Cristiano’s group from Georgia commented on the tailgating scene at UGA.
“In Athens, it’s not as friendly to tailgaters with parking, but that school is in a different area, too,” she said. “It is kinda getting harder for tailgating.”
McElvy recalls a time when he was able to park his tailgate much closer to Jordan-Hare Stadium, but over the years, each season has seen him pushed farther and farther to the outskirts of University property.
Tailgate parties in the Lower Quad in Auburn, Ala.
“We started tailgating at [Graves Amphitheatre],” he said. “After 9/11 happened, there was a safety issue then, and that kinda forced all universities, not just Auburn, [to] create some barriers to keep unauthorized vehicles from getting close to the stadium.”
Some are more warm toward this reduction in tailgating zones, like Nemeroff, who is an Auburn graduate and was a student at a time when no limitations existed for tailgaters who set up on campus property.
“They originally restricted those times because it was interfering with students’ class schedules during the big games,” he said. “People would be tailgating all week outside the dorms. I can remember a couple times when I came out of my house and got sidetracked by tailgaters, and I thought, ‘I’m not going to go to class today.’”
As the University expands south and west with more projects in the future, it’s likely that land currently set aside for RV tailgating will be used for new buildings, according to Dan King, associate vice president for University Facilities Management.
“We will try to demolish buildings and infill new buildings in the core of campus,” King said. “However, the areas where that is possible are limited and have the disadvantage that new building sites in the core of campus would come at the expense of green space and parking, which many people would also consider to be unacceptable.”
On the beliefs about the loss of a long-standing tradition surrounding the further removal of tailgating spaces, King affirmed that the institution comes first before the athletics.
“It is well understood that gamedays are important events for Auburn fans and the University community,” he said. “Having said that, when making decisions about competing requirements, support for the University’s core academic and research mission tends to take priority.”
Mayor Anders says the progression of Auburn not just in its college, but its infrastructure and people means that some historic practices might disappear as a consequence.
“The reality is Auburn’s not the same town as it was 30 or 40 years ago, and [it] has tripled in size,” Anders said. “That growth is not going to slow down because Auburn’s got a lot of great things going for it.”
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