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Official tailgate question - Printable Version

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Official tailgate question - yvonne - 12-17-2012

What do you get for $75?

Re: Official tailgate question - fullmetal - 12-17-2012

a 15,000 person strong traffic jam?

At the Orange Bowl, they had food and drinks, plus some swag on tables.  Before I got there, I think there were some luminaries giving speeches.

Re: Official tailgate question - Oasis - 12-17-2012

Not much.

Re: Official tailgate question - GoodGrief - 12-17-2012

Ha! I have to say, as soon as I saw the Subject, I thought, "Is the question, 'Why is the tailgate 75 freaking dollars?' "

I love my University, but my experience has been that you don't get much for your money at a Stanford tailgate. The last one I attended was at USC during the Harbaugh era. I may be inaccurate with the details, but I remember feeling embarrassed that my school would charge $40 and give each person one thin burger, a bag of chips, and a can of pop.

Re: Official tailgate question - fullmetal - 12-17-2012

How many Cardboarders have bought official tailgate tickets?  How many would rather just congregate at Toby the Van?

Re: Official tailgate question - 76lsjumb - 12-17-2012

This is undoubtedly not the "cool" response, but, having been to each of the Sun Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl "official" tailgates, I can honestly say that at every one of them I have had a chance to eat and drink as much as I have wanted [and more than I should have] without much in the way of lines, have managed to pick up about as much swag -- buttons, towels, etc. -- as I could carry, have heard the Band play pretty much everything they know, and [at least at the Fiesta Bowl] have seen more "celebs" [i.e., former Stanford/now-pro athletes from multiple sports] by far than at any other "official" gatherings.  Plus, at the Fiesta Bowl, they had big screens to watch opther games and a variety of kid-friendly activities.  There have always been enough tables to sit at with as many family/friends as you can muster.

Finally, at both the Orange and Fiesta Bowls, I would have had no problem at all unloading any extra tailgate tickets at the door, given that both were sell-outs and there were plenty of people asking and willing to pay for any extra tickets.

In short, the rather steep price notwithstanding, I have nothing at all bad to say about the past three, and I'm certainly hoping this will match them.  Of course, every venue is different, and past results are no guarantee of future success, but I'm very glad I went to the previous ones and left a meeting early to make sure I got may tickets for this one.

Re: Official tailgate question - washingtonismoney - 12-17-2012

I went to Stanford Rocks at the Fiesta Bowl, but can confirm the Orange Bowl event was a ton of fun and a great time to reconnect with a bunch of people.

Re: Official tailgate question - yvonne - 12-17-2012

Thanks, 76. One of the things I wonder is how much and what kind of swag there is.

Re: Official tailgate question - Leftcoast - 12-17-2012

My ex-roommates and their families are all going to the Official 'Gater so I swallowed hard, tried hard not to look at the total price, tried even harder to not think about what the whole weekend will cost and bought 5 tickets.  I still cringe when I think about it but hey, this is only my second Rose Bowl in 30 years of fandom.

I mean I COULD be home cleaning the rain gutters like my Berkeley alum neighbor, right?

;-)



Re: Official tailgate question - GoodGrief - 12-17-2012

I'm really glad to hear you say that 76lsjumb, and I'm glad that maybe Stanford has upped their level of hospitality. I was so turned off by the USC tailgate that I never bothered attending one again, but your post makes me think that maybe I'll give it another try. Funny thing, I actually deleted from my earlier post that it's okay to charge a lot and deliver a lot, or charge little and deliver little. I just found it obnoxious that somebody turned the USC tailgater into a money-making venture, with careful rationing of food and drink.

I may try the official tailgater, although still, I'd like to be in the stadium to watch warm-ups. Heck, it's the Rose Bowl--I wanna be in it for as long as possible.



Re: Official tailgate question - 76lsjumb - 12-17-2012

(12-17-2012, 10:59 PM)GoodGrief link Wrote:I'm really glad to hear you say that 76lsjumb, and I'm glad that maybe Stanford has upped their level of hospitality. I was so turned off by the Under Stanford Control tailgate that I never bothered attending one again, but your post makes me think that maybe I'll give it another try. Funny thing, I actually deleted from my earlier post that it's okay to charge a lot and deliver a lot, or charge little and deliver little. I just found it obnoxious that somebody turned the Under Stanford Control tailgater into a money-making venture, with careful rationing of food and drink.

I may try the official tailgater, although still, I'd like to be in the stadium to watch warm-ups. Heck, it's the Rose Bowl--I wanna be in it for as long as possible.

Uh oh...  I meant everything I said about the prior tailgates, but, of course, Pasadena is a different venue than the other places, and the folks actually putting on the thing will be different.  If it doesn't turn out to be as good as the others, not only will I be disappointed, but I may be in line for a punch on the nose...  ???

Still, if you take a look at the massive number of people already on the "Look Who's Coming" List, the Alumni Association has got to know that a less than positive experience for that many alums could have unfortunate ramifications of epic proportions.

Re: Official tailgate question - fullmetal - 12-18-2012

I saw Bowlsby at the Orange Bowl 'gater, although that wasn't so much a tailgater as an indoor party.  So Muir will be there quality checking and rubbing elbows with big donors, I presume.

Re: Official tailgate question - DC - 12-18-2012

What time in the stadium will the warmup drills start? I think the pre-game show starts at 1:30, so would there be two sets of drills with the first starting about an hour before the pre-game, i.e 12:30?  When do they start letting people into the stadium?

Unfortunately, both teams are running teams, which will shorten the game.

Re: Official tailgate question - Bruce Wang - 12-18-2012

The alums that don't normally follow football other than maybe Big Game will flock to the official tailgate like a thundering herd, and I like a lemming will follow them.  There are lots of folks I don't normally see being stuck out here in New England: schoolmates from contemporaneous classes that I don't see at reunions, guys I used to watch Stanford-ball with during grad school, professors, Stanford celebrities, etc.  It's the ultimate Stanford reunion.  If it's a ripoff, think of it as a donation to Stanford.

Re: Official tailgate question - DC - 12-18-2012

Thanks, Garvin.  Forgot about all those TV timeouts.  We'll get our time to sit in the stadium and enjoy the spectacle.

Re: Official tailgate question - teejers1 - 12-19-2012

No question that Stanford overcharges for the tailgate; however, I also agree that the Sun, Orange and Fiesta Bowl events were well run.  Still, I think Stanford over-set expectations on the official tailgate.  As far as I know, it has not sold out - and I think the poo-bahs on campus were expecting a sellout in a few days.  My sense is that Stanford overestimated how much was "too much" and underestimated the number of Stanford folks in LA area willing to host own gig.  [Unfortunately, my close friends in LA are not hosting pre-game activities, so it's the official 'gater for us].

Re: Official tailgate question - fullmetal - 12-19-2012

I bought an official 'gater ticket, but I will probably also attend the Toby the Van tailgate as well.

Re: Official tailgate question - LuckE2Bhere - 12-19-2012

(12-19-2012, 02:02 PM)teejers1 link Wrote:No question that Stanford overcharges for the tailgate

Putting aside the "charging no more than what the market will clearly bear" argument (i.e., why should they "leave money on the table" when they clearly feel the "need" to raise funds via the Buck/Cardinal Club, etc. to fund our athletic department)... even if they were under some moral obligation to price this on a cost-plus basis, do you have any idea what their costs are for this?  For all we know, they could be paying $40-50 a person to the Rose Bowl, per some land-use or affiliation clause in their contract, no?  I'm not saying they are... just that we don't really know what real profit they are or aren't retaining on this.  I can tell you that the experience was well worth the hefty price at both the Orange and Fiesta bowls, so I'm not complaining (just hoping they don't cheap-out on the execution, and that it hasn't become overwhelmingly large).


Re: Official tailgate question - Spiny_Norman - 12-19-2012

I work with the Alumni Association as a volunteer on events in the LA area.  We have been told (and I have no reason to disbelieve, though I have not audited the books) that the Alumni Association subsidizes every event that it hosts here in SoCal.  The Leading Matters conference, faculty events, football tailgates - they ALWAYS cost more than the charge for attendance.  The Alumni Association does not profit from events.  They want to price them so that as many alums and friends of the University can attend.

On that note, Stanford just announced that the Rose Bowl tailgate is at capacity and ticket sales are closed.  10 days, 15,000 tickets sold.

Re: Official tailgate question - yvonne - 12-19-2012

There's also a public tailgate in lot H.

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/TheRoseBowlGame/Events/tabid/1594/ModuleID/3672/ItemID/52/mctl/EventDetails/Default.aspx