‘Gameday’ limited by access concerns

Due to access constraints, student leaders said they had little choice as to the location of “Football Gameday.”
Due to access constraints, student leaders said they had little choice as to the location of “Football Gameday.”

After a drawn-out process to reinvent Tailgate, the end product—Football Gameday—was far removed from student leaders’ original hopes.

After Tailgate was canceled last year, some student government leaders said they wanted to preserve the community aspect the event was known for, as well as create a stronger tie to football games. They faced a number of administrative roadblocks when searching for a location for the new event that could allow both of these aspects.

“We had plans laid to have a new event that would be based on community and trying to go the football game,” said DSG President Pete Schork, a senior. “We were basically told that we can’t have the event [the way we wanted].”

Schork said student leaders initially considered the Whitford parking lot—directly next to the student section of Wallace Wade Stadium—in May or June when trying to find a new location. Administrators informed student leaders, however, that the lot was not a possibility due to a legal conflict with the American Disability Association—a conflict that had been solved earlier that year.

“We worked for several months and had hoped to place students somewhere on athletic campus to be part of the overall Gameday experience,” Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said. Moneta could not be reached for further comment Monday.

Limited access

Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said the conflict involved a handicapped individual who came to last September’s Duke football game against the University of Alabama. The individual had a handicapped parking permit but was mistakenly directed to an inaccessible lot. At the time, Schoenfeld said, Duke had more than 300 parking spots designated as handicapped spots for football game attendees, but the spots were filled because of high attendance for the Alabama game.

The individual filed an ADA complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Schoenfeld said. He added that Duke described the situation and showed the University’s backup plan to the DOE, who then pronounced the case closed in early 2011.

The University added 70 handicapped parking spots to Wallace Wade and designated the D2 lot in the Blue Zone as an overflow disability lot.

“It had to be a place where there had to be accessibility and where shuttles [to bring handicapped visitors to Wallace Wade] could access,” Schoenfeld said.

After the conflict, Duke Athletics moved the Iron Dukes’ spots previously located in the D2 lot to the Whitford lot, making it impossible to use Whitford for Football Gameday, said junior Chris Brown, DSG external chief of staff.

“If we could start from scratch, [Whitford] is where I would want the experience to be,” Brown said.

An ‘extremely disruptive’ change

Other locations were considered but did not materialize, Schork said. He added that Krzyzewskiville was considered as a potential Football Gameday location, but Duke Athletics ruled it out because they had a financial incentive to maintain use of the space.

Mike Sobb, associate director of athletics for external affairs, could not be reached for comment Friday and Monday.

Schork said the alleyway between the Sanford School of Public Policy parking lot and Wallace Wade, but administrators and student leaders decided that it was too small to host students for a pre-football celebration.

“We considered all of the opportunities on campus to create a traditional tailgating atmosphere,” Schork said.

DSG student leaders ultimately settled on hosting Football Gameday on Towerview Drive—where they thought could keep the event centralized and still preserve a connection to football games. Administrators were aware of DSG’s plans to hold Football Gameday there throughout the summer, Schork said.

Student leaders and administrators, including some from Student Affairs, met in early August to solidify the location. At this point, Student Affairs informed student leaders that Towerview was not an option for Football Gameday because it would be impossible to have tents lined up on the actual road.

Schork said he and others were frustrated that they had worked on plans all summer for Gameday, believing that it would take place on Towerview, only to be told several weeks before the first Gameday that the location was not viable.

“We had operated under the assumption that we would have been able to use that space,” Schork said. “We had a whole summer to put together a plan, and the response from Student Affairs was surprising.”

When officials in Student Affairs informed Schork and others that Towerview Drive was not an option for Football Gameday, the officials also acknowledged the Tailgate replacement would not be a communal experience, Schork said. Student Affairs began emphasizing options that were uncentralized, he noted, adding that the change was “extremely disruptive.”

Administrators and student leaders ultimately decided to hold Football Gameday on the Main West Quadrangle, with registered student groups spread throughout the Main Quad and surrounding quads.

“At the first week, there was no centralized character to it,” Schork said. “[The administration] would not permit a centralized event.... They didn’t even want to call it an event. It required a lot of effort and that effort wasn’t necessary—that’s unfortunate because... we were moving in the right direction.”

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