In The Most Un-American Announcement Ever, NFL Declares There Will Be No Tailgating For This Year’s Super Bowl
12 years ago

From ESPN:

SECAUCUS, N.J. — Forget about setting up those kegs or buffet tables in the parking lot before this season’s Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium. There will be no tailgating, according to the game’s committee CEO, Al Kelly.

“You will be allowed to have food in your car and have drink in your car,” Kelly said. “And provided you’re in the boundaries of a single parking space, you’ll be able to eat or drink right next to your car. However, you’re not going to be able to take out a lounge chair, you’re not going to be able to take out a grill, and you’re not going to be able to take up more than one parking space. And it’ll all be watched very carefully.”

Thanks, Obama?

The terrorists are winning?

Oh what? Is this a communist country? I thought this was America!?!

I’m not sure exactly what to say here, but the truth is that I doubt this is the first time tailgating has been banned, if not at the very least near impossible, at a Super Bowl. For all we’d like to say about how much college football sells out with its ridiculously named bowl games and absurdly maximized profits at the expense of its players, the NCAA doesn’t have shit on the NFL. There is not a more corporate, more soulless sporting entity in the world than the NFL. This is exemplified at the Super Bowl. The big game may be one of the great American sporting events, but I can honestly say that I have no desire to ever attend one. I’d rather go to the Kentucky Derby with the twenty whiniest PETA members in the world than go to the Super Bowl with my fraternity brothers.

Not only will tailgating at the Super Bowl be impossible, but it sounds like the people who planned how fans will get to MetLife Stadium borrowed their logistics from whichever demon mapped out damned souls’ descent to hell.

There will be only three ways for the expected 80,000 ticket holders to get to the game. The committee will charter buses called the Fan Express, which will cost $51 and pick up and drop off passengers at nine locations around the region. Fans can also take N.J. Transit to the MetLife Stadium stop or be dropped off by vehicles that must have parking passes.

There will be fewer than 13,000 parking spots available for fans.

And hiring a black car, taxi or limo won’t be an option for VIPs who will spend thousands of dollars per ticket. No cars will be allowed near the stadium on game day without parking passes, and any car that drops off a passenger will have to wait at the stadium.

“Nobody’s going to be dropped off by black car,” Kelly said. “You can have a black car, a green car, a white car, a red car as long as you have parking, and the car needs to stay on the premises the entire time.”

Fans who had considered parking farther from the stadium and getting there on foot will not be allowed to enter.

“You cannot walk to the Super Bowl,” Kelly said. “You can get your hotel to drop you off at one of the New Jersey Transit locations or get the shuttle to take you to a Fan Express location, but you cannot walk.”

Yeah, I’m going to give that a hard pass.

Super Bowl parties > Attending the Super Bowl.

Especially a Super Bowl in freakin’ New Jersey.

[via ESPN]

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    1. joseclairevo

      you read my mind!! i wanted to be the first one to say it, but by all means, it’s all yours. i don’t even like football and this is a travesty.

      12 years ago at 7:32 pm
    1. PhiGamerican

      Literally, how can they stop you from walking to the Super Bowl? Someone explain that logic please.

      12 years ago at 5:20 pm
  8. Fratterhorn

    What’s next? No beer served in stadiums? This is a joke. The No Fun League strikes again.

    12 years ago at 4:57 pm
    1. bignasty

      But if they didn’t serve 12 dollar bud lights how would they make any money? That’s the real motive behind all this.

      12 years ago at 6:33 pm
  9. Tuco1855

    It’s a disgrace to the integrity of the NFL to have a Super Bowl played in potentially really shitty conditions. They stopped making it about the game and made it about the entertainment instead. Fuck New York.

    12 years ago at 4:57 pm
    1. Tuco1855

      ^Like the Lions/Eagles game? That kind of weather shouldn’t be a factor in the worlds biggest game. Also, up until this year, they’ve always had the Super Bowl in favorable conditions because that’s the most fair way to play.
      But beyond the game itself, the entertainment side of the Super Bowl is what pisses me off. The fact that NY is the exception to norm is BS. They banned tailgating so you’d spend money at NY/NJ bars and pay for NY cabs. The whole situation IMO is a load of shit at it’s at the expense of the actual game.

      12 years ago at 5:29 pm
    2. anon6473892034

      ^ I see your point, but c’mon. The winter storm this weekend was an anomaly. Chances are that 9/10 times, the weather will be like your typical Bears game. Tellin’ me you wouldn’t want to see a Super Bowl at Soldier Field?

      This is my problem with the element argument. It’d be like refusing to hold the British Open at St. Andrews so its notorious rain and wind patterns are taken out of the equation when deciding the world’s best golfer, and instead holding every major at Augusta or Pebble. You’re stripping the game of its natural setting, and denying some real cathedrals of the game a time to shine.

      12 years ago at 5:47 pm
    3. Douglas MacArthur

      Indy 2012. It worked out fine, and many journalists said it was the best Super Bowl host city in years.

      12 years ago at 5:53 pm
    4. Douglas MacArthur

      Miami 2007. Would appear to be a great place to have a Super Bowl weather wise, but it poured rain the whole game and field conditions were bad. You can’t outsmart Mother Nature.

      12 years ago at 5:59 pm
    5. Tuco1855

      ^^I just hate seeing fumble after fumble when the ball is a rock and nobody can hang on. It changes the game. Stevan Ridley and Joique Bell can vouch for that.

      Sure I’d love to see the SB at Solider Field(would never happen/too small)I’d have a great time, but it shouldn’t be catered to the viewers and city.

      I wasn’t particularly amused by your british open reference either. Golfers play against the course, technically speaking, and numbers determine who wins. There’s no offense/defense or head to head match ups that may benefit one player or another in tough conditions. Golf and Football are apples to oranges even in weather discussions.

      12 years ago at 6:16 pm
    6. Tuco1855

      ^^I’d take guaranteed warm with a chance of rain over guaranteed freezing with the change of a blizzard. But hey, It’s New York!

      12 years ago at 6:18 pm
    7. WtF_

      That game was really fun to watch so I don’t know what you’re talking about. I hope there’s a snowstorm during the superbowl.

      12 years ago at 9:31 pm
    9. Punxsutawney Phil

      Not playing Football in the elements is as un-American as being a terrorist.

      12 years ago at 6:37 pm