Upheld tailgate policies should be revised or repealed
Central Michigan University’s adherence to the rules and restrictions on tailgating in Lot 63 before football games does more harm than good.
The policies, which include a limit of six beers or one pint of liquor per entrant and a $6 fee to park in the lot, are likely to continue to damage attendance to tailgating. With the football team beginning this season unproven, several less-than-excellent performances may damage attendance to the tailgate and the game beyond repair.
Although as last football season went on, attendance recovered to a degree, the number of tailgaters in Lot 63 recovered to a degree, it never rose to the levels previous to the implementation of these policies. Tailgaters dispersed along Main Street and the downtown area, as well as the city’s numerous apartment complexes.
Instead of having one concentrated area for police and emergency responders to focus on, they now have to keep tabs on the entire city for public drunkenness, open intoxication, drunk driving and a number of other infractions as tailgaters migrate from off-campus locations to Kelly/Shorts Stadium. The message the university is sending by leaving these rules unchanged is that this is fine in its eyes.
The university and the CMU Police will justify that the rules continue to be in place for public safety. Instead of encouraging and advising safe choices, however, the university is trying to force them upon tailgaters in an authoritarian manner.
The only rule reasonable to maintain is the ban on glass containers. This removes a hazardous and previously constant element of tailgating. However, charging to park in Lot 63 and limiting the alcohol permitted in the tailgating area is not reducing dangerous alcohol-related behavior — it is simply moving it elsewhere in the city.
If the football team proves to be successful with a new coach and a large number of relatively untested key players, this argument may be rendered moot. If this proves to be the case, the football team may single-handedly save football attendance and the CMU tailgating tradition.
The university’s administration and police force certainly is not giving them any help.
