Tailgate may have had a dirty reputation, but now it is officially a dirty word.
Administrators confirmed that a new event, formally called Football Gameday, will replace Tailgate this Fall.
“The word ‘Tailgate’ will never exist,” said Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek. “We buried the term.”
For the first scheduled football game against Richmond Sept. 3, registered student groups will be able to host barbecues on the Main West Quadrangle and throughout the surrounding residential quadrangles. Groups can request a particular location for their event, although nothing is guaranteed, said Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta.
“The basic premise is that there is not an event other than the football game,” Moneta said. “There are opportunities on Gameday for groups that want to have a private barbecue and gathering to do so. We’re inviting spirit-building in advance of the game.”
Each student barbecue is expected to host 75 students at the most, Moneta said. Events will follow University alcohol policy, including a six-pack per person rule, a no glass rule and a no common distribution rule. These are the same regulations that apply on the Last Day of Classes.
“These will be private events hosted by particular groups that want to host an event,” he said. “These are not events intended to be broad public events.”
The Office of Student Activities and Facilities sent an email to registered student groups Thursday night detailing Gameday logistics.
The University will allow groups to pre-order food packages, provided by Q Shack, which will be made available to groups on the day of the game. Cost of food will be on a per person basis, ranging from $9 to $12. Tents and tables will also be available for rent, and groups’ barbecues must also be cleaned up 45 minutes before the start of the game.
Groups will be allowed to have music at their barbecues, although major amplification will not be permitted, Moneta added. He suggested that groups could use iPads, iPhones or iTouches with some small speakers.
It will also be possible to host Football Gameday festivities on East Campus, Moneta noted.
A regulated, but incentivized event
Duke University Police Department will be on Main quad prior to the first football game. Wasiolek and other administrators will also be on the quad. Each group’s barbecue will have people who will serve similar functions as party monitors.
Although pre-game programming is now further away from Wallace Wade Stadium—the Blue Zone, where Tailgate previously took place, was closer in proximity—Wasiolek and Moneta said they believe football attendance will increase this year.
“There are so many schools in the country where you have to go in a car or bus to get to the stadium, but students here just have to get across the street,” Wasiolek said. “There are a lot of schools that would kill to have a residential quad like ours to use before the game.”
There will potentially be incentives to bring student groups hosting a barbecue to football games. Groups may have the ability to sit together as a section and have their names featured on the scoreboard, Wasiolek said.
“The aim of the new event is to acknowledge that coming together before attending a football game to enjoy each other’s company, to eat and to just get excited about the game is a normal, natural, fun thing to do,” Wasiolek said. “If you go to any other college campus on any given Saturday, you’re going to see people tailgating.”
She added the Blue Devil’s Walk—when the football team walks from the Duke Chapel to Wallace Wade prior to games—may be reconfigured to walk through barbecues.
Willing to adapt
Moneta and Wasiolek said they worked extensively with Duke Athletics to create the substitute for Tailgate. They also worked with senior Pete Schork, Duke Student Government president; junior Chris Brown, DSG external chief of staff and former vice president for athletics and campus services; senior Christina Lieu, DSG vice president for athletics, services and the environment; and senior Zach Prager, president of the Interfraternity Council.
Director of Athletics Kevin White could not be reached for comment because he is traveling with the men’s basketball team in China and Dubai.
Brown said he lobbied with Schork to hold a more communal and centralized event similar to the former Tailgate, but there were no parking lots near Wallace Wade or approved quadrangles that could accommodate an event of this nature. He said they will continue to lobby to allow non-registered student groups to host barbecues.
“DSG is vehemently sticking up for the little guy in this one,” Brown said. “We want to make sure that a group of six people from their hallway have the ability to get a grill, so that tailgating is open to the entire student body.”
Brown said student representatives also pushed to incorporate amenities like tents, sections in stands, footballs and catered food into Football Gameday.
Schork said he thinks the new experience will be a fun event, but acknowledged that students may not open up to it automatically.
“Initially, people are going to find it pretty foreign because it’s something new,” he said. “That die was cast when Tailgate was cancelled last year. If people have an open mind, people will have a good time. It really does have a lot to do with the desire to reconcile a fun, spirited activity that also works well within the framework of having a better football team like we do now.”
The location is not ideal, Brown said, but he added that current plans for the first Football Gameday are flexible, and there will be changes made throughout the season to create an optimal football experience.
“I think we still have a lot of logistical challenges that will be resolved in a couple of weeks, and I’m not sure that what we end up doing for the first game against Richmond will end up being the final tailgating model,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of tweaking to be done, plus the house model is on the horizon.”
Moneta said it is important that students comply with the new Football Gameday experience to ensure that events can continue to take place.
“We need a success on campus,” Moneta said. “If this fails—failing would be a restoration of the old event... we’re going in with the faith and confidence that the majority of students will understand that violating our intent to create a very healthy and spirit-building activity is not something they want to do.”
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