For those that are not aware yet, UCF this year is implementing some major changes to tailgating on campus. Here is a link to the new tailgate rules on the official UCF site. Most important being that for games that start at 6pm or later you will now not be allowed to tailgate until 12pm. Considering we have at least 4 of our 7 games starting at 6pm or later this is a major change and goes against policies that have been in place since I can remember as a 20 year UCF fan. For those that only tailgate in a small group for a few hours you may ask, why is this is a problem? Let me give you some answers from my perspective:

• Traffic congestion and a mad rush to get your spot. Instead of people arriving at all times during the day, you will now have a rush of people at 12pm so that everyone can get to their standard spots. We already have the nightmare of leaving the stadium, now we’ll have to go through it twice. It’s also now going to be much harder for a group to have the same tailgate spot each week due to the 12pm rush that will occur. If it doesn’t sound like much, imagine being the organizer of a tailgate of 50 people and then having to call each of them each weekend and try to explain where you are located this time.

• Significantly decreases tailgate enjoyment for those who help host large tailgates, such as myself for example. I know from experience that hosting a large tailgate takes a lot of time and effort, not just on gameday but throughout the week. When you factor in setup and take-down and then arriving to the game on time, you are now looking at under 4 hours of tailgating for a 6pm game. Then there is cooking time, participation on gameday activities, etc that leaves you with even less time to unwind and enjoy the company of friends. I can also tell you it’s a lot easier to setup a large tailgate at 7am when the sun is just coming up then at noon in the middle of the daytime heat. It becomes a question of is it really worth it to those who host these tailgates, and that could cause a terrible trickle down effect if donors stop putting in effort to put on great elaborate tailgates to attract friends and family.

• It devalues being a GKC booster. Don’t underestimate the value of parking for UCF football games versus seat allotments in the stadium. In my group alone there are a lot of family members that likely value the tailgate more than the game, and you know what that is okay. There are those that just don’t love the game of football, but they love to meet up with family and friends each week at the tailgate. This rule could cause those to stop paying lots of money to the GKC when they can’t park in their Gold lot until noon, when others could get around the rule in the free parking lots. Worse yet, with reduced tailgating times and less involved setups it could make some rethink even going to games.

• Most importantly and what gets me most upset is I don’t believe this will have any effect on the problem they are trying to fix. The UCF administration apparently believes that by limiting the tailgate hours there will be less drunken fans wondering around causing problems. I think that is a major miscalculation on their part. The fans that show up early and setup for tailgates are not the ones causing problems, I guarantee you that. It doesn’t take 10 hours to get drunk, many can do that in under an hour and it’s likely those fans that cause the problems. So now we are risking our fan base and removing a long standing tradition, yet we are probably not even fixing the issue they intended to resolve.

Not everyone is big into tailgates and may not appreciate the sensitivity of this issue. But as someone that has used the institution of tailgating over the past 10+ years to draw in dozens of family and friends to become season ticket holders and countless others to becoming occasional fans I can’t underscore how important this change is to UCF. Some people appear all to eager to equate tailgating with drinking heavily, and while students may feel that way for the vast majority that’s just not the case. Tailgating attracts new fans and retains current fans even during tough years on the field. Tailgating helps create traditions and atmosphere this young school is thriving to obtain. Tailgating helps erase the pain and suffering of a tough loss and gives you the strength to do it all over again the next week. Tailgating is an honored tradition in my family and in many others while helping to create lots of diehard Knight fans for years to come.

The sad part is this is just another administrative change in a long list of restrictions that appear light on measured thought and heavy on overreaction. Cherry pickers, tent lines for tailgates in Memory Mall, abrasive police officers, and now time restrictions. Enough is enough. Where is the involvement with student groups, GKC donors, alumni, or season ticket holders? These are the people that are the lifeline of a a program, yet they are given no voice? No more, we must stand up and let our voices be heard on these new rules, not just for our own benefit but for the good of this program. We all want to enjoy our UCF Game Days and watch this program grow and prosper.

If you agree please take a moment to email the following people and let them know your feelings on these new tailgate rules:

UCF Contacts
aharms@mail.ucf.edu (Al Harms, the man who made the decision)
http://president.ucf.edu/hittmessage.html (President of UCF)
askkeith@athletics.ucf.edu (Athletic Director)
joehorn@athletics.ucf.edu (Assoc Athletic Director / PR & Communications)

Media Contacts (to create buzz)
ilimon@orlandosentinel.com
mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com

Also if you are on Facebook, please join this group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121252214240