08-23-2017, 11:20 PM
Quote: @Vikes45 said:
Yeah tailgating was being shut down for a few years. The city I think eventually realized that was bad PR for them.@Mike Olson said:
We also need to secure a tailgating spot. Rumor has it that many of the spots that used to be available are now no longer there for tailgating.
It seems that the Vikings and/or the city is squashing tailgating as we have come to know it. So if you know someone that has a tailgating pass that might be able to let us use it let us know. History does indeed repeat. I remember I was about 20 years old when we tried to tailgate at the Metrodome during it's first season. The Minneapolis cops showed up, kicked our grills over and told us to hit the road, no more tailgating.
Of course there's a really interesting dilemma regarding tailgating... First seas of surface lots for city design are really a bad idea. They don't generate very much revenue for the city. Second they are crime areas. Third... well they are ugly when they aren't filled with us beautiful tailgaters.
But then there's everything that tailgating brings that is good. Thousands of fans getting together and getting along is great for the community as well.
The problem is that it is greed. The city wants their tax revenue by having revenue generating businesses on those lots. And for sure having businesses on those lots that employ people is actually important as well. And then lets face it as good of a facade that the Vikings have put on about having tailgating as an option they've always known that they would rather have people eating their food and drinking their beer for an enormously inflated price. These two factors are exactly why no site other than downtown was ever going to happen despite what anyone said in public. Also you have to factor in the infrastructure that was already in place and the desire to get the ROI on those infrastructure investments.
So we should just accept it and move on right? Not so fast. Large tailgating groups need to find the work around. There are many lots that aren't too much further down the line that are on those same public transit lines. Contacting the businesses that own these lots would be a good idea. See if any of them want to max $X per car. It might get spendy though as no business not experienced in it would have an awakening at the amount of cleanup that goes along with it (another gripe of the city as well).
I guess what I am getting at is this was an inevitable thing that has been coming for a long time. It's up to us to figure out how to work around it. Or just let the tradition fade. I don't think that is an option.
