Yep.
Donât care.
Tailgating needs trump traffic concerns.
Come on man where are your priorities!!!
Seriously though. They need to get creative near the student tailgate pavilion.
Thatâs the spot.
Of course itâs gonna take some $$$$$$
Thatâs def what has happened at the ambulance. In 2013 it was mostly just people drinking. Now my two kids, HotRods 2, Rickys one, Jasonâs 2, Jasonâs bil 2, NLPs 2 and more are all there running around and playing along with wives and everything from kids that graduated in the last few years to guys that graduated in the 70s. Itâs been a. Pretty awesome dynamic.
The spread out nature of the lots makes it difficult for the gathering of different groups and generations. The big single giant lots on the fairgrounds makes it way easier. At the old black lot I loved walking around meeting people at the tailgates.
Also F that hill next to the soccer stadium. Glad they moved the road. Sat on that hill in the rain with my Harley trying not to roll back, spin out, drop the bike or burn out my clutch.
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cltâs biggest concern was the early years when they wouldnât let you into the lot until 4 hrs before kickoff
hella lame for a noon game
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That is not flat land. Thereâs a gully in there made of granite boulders. Also serves as a drainage creek for the flood plain.
Would be expensive to âfixâ.
Iâm pretty sure there is a plan for a second road to main campus to come through here at some point. Itâs supposed to attach to the current road system at Miltmore.
As far as tailgating goes, the system is still a dumpster fire. The most affordable lot is the top of West Deck which is okay but itâs super limited once the stadium is expanded. Blue and Red lots require a $450 minumum donation which is insane considering theyâre both mostly empty.
Iâve always thought the Kohlâs parking lot would be a great spot to get alot of Niners together and could be alot cheaper. Make it first come first serve and allow tailgating 6 hours before games on Saturday. You could put PATS out business and force them to change.
What does PAT have to do with setting up a tailgating spot on campus? That youâll get a ticket for tailgating?
Yup. All parking on campus has to be cleared through them. They manage all the lots.
PAT has been the Gestapo on our campus for as long as I can remember. I still have scars from where they screwed me as a sophomore.
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If you didnât get a ticket on campus were you really ever a student? 
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I got so many tickets, but they all started with one event - when I bought my parking pass my sophomore year. I was a typical broke as hell student and the parking pass cost just about every penny I had to my name at that moment. I bought it, the lady behind the counter handed me the receipt, and then 1 of two highly debated things happened:
A) she either forgot to hand me the actual pass / sticker or
B) she handed it to me and I immediately lost it right there at the counter before I even left.
Bottom line was, and I appealed numerous times, PAT 1) would not issue me a replacement pass or a refund 2) threatened to send me to collections / call the cops for passing a fraudulent check if I attempted to stop payment as I threatened, 3) wouldnât even let me buy another one due to âlimited parking availabilityâ. I asked the head of PAT in a 1 on 1 appeal meeting what he expected me to do with my car if I didnât have a parking sticker that I could prove I had paid for (I had a letter from my bank verifying the transaction went through). Their answer: either find your pass, park off campus, or pay the mountain of tickets you will accept for living / parking on campus. I couldnât believe it. I finally appealed to someone in the Chancellorâs office and even they had ZERO power over PAT, but they were able to negotiate a settlement where I was âallowedâ to purchase an additional part time student pass allowing me to park in a lot over by the Friday building (only), the opposite side of campus. And I wanna say that I could only park there during certain hours of the day, too.
I spent the rest of the school year moving my car about 3-4 times a day, trying to dodge parking tickets. I got pretty good at it, but I still piled up another $250+ in fines on top of the two passes I legitimately paid for, and one time they put a boot on my car and made me late for work so I almost got fired.
So yeah, PAT can go F themselves. Forever.
Sorry, I only meant tailgate, not park. Just because you park in the teal lot, doesnât mean you have to tailgate there. Take your tailgating to as close to the stadium as you can. Pick it up and take it back after the game. Iâve been to several other stadiums where people dropoff. You load up a car, get as close as you can, drop off a group, then the one person goes and park the car. People use taxis/uber, etc. In the decks, people are in their assigned and just tailgate outside of their car. Take it outside of the deck and find a spot on campus.
I donât want to bash our fans too much though, as a lot of this is simply related to numbers. Some of the comparisons people have made are for stadiums 7 times the size of our stadium. Of course thereâs going to be a lot more tailgating.
We have a lot of folks doing that right now. They park in CRI and then walk down. HotRod has to talk his way every game into them letting him drive into the lot and drop stuff off.
I get what you are saying though.
My point with PATs was more about growing the areas we do tailgate in - closing roads or using grassy areas. PATs has been notorious for ticketing people for parking in areas they donât want and not budging. I tried tailgating a baseball game once and they made me move off some grass. I packed everything up and they said no we donât want you to leave just move - I said F that. I already donât like this sport, I am going home. I know I have heard from visiting fans or first time fans that have bad experiences with parking. Basically itâs their way or no way.
I remember stopping at Halton once to get stuff to throw out stuff for St Patricks parade. I parked up near halton in a restricted area for like 10 minutes because it was going to be boxes of stuff. Hummer said âYou are lucky they didnt ticket you, if they do I canât helpâ. Everyone on campus is scared of PATs and powerless.
^This x 1000!
A successful and fun tailgating culture could make PATs more money in the long run.
Itâs frustrating to keep having these same conversations year after year, seems like the AD and Chancellor are happy with the status quo. We have a really nice campus and stadium. If done right, we could have a special environment to go with it.
Iâm not sure how you give the powers that be a kick in the butt to make things better tho.
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Thatâs insane, does the Chancellor have any power of them? If not that would explain why athletics hasnât made any changes.
@d_whitley - see my admittedly long story. I went to the Chancellorâs office, and even they said they had zero power over PAT. They acted scared of them. Iâve never seen anything like that at any other organization. They are almost literally the Gestapo.
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clt says a pro tip WAS to pay your ticket in person and keep the envelope
park wherever you want, and put the envelope on your wiper to look like you already had a ticket
this worked for a while
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That just sounds like A PERSON at the Chancellorâs Office, not the Chancellor. That position has the ultimate power over every position on campus, including PATS. I would bet the current (and past) Chancellors have been insulated from understanding the amount of issues with that group.
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I think its two challenges. 1 - Navigating donors and being creative with solutions. 2 - Getting PATs to go along with said creative solutions.
I know they have worked on $1 without much success. No idea if that is due to #2.
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I donât doubt theyâve tried something, but the end result is still the same. I guess a lack of communication is a part of it as well.
Every other FBS team faces a similar challenge with tailgating, yet it feels like weâre the only ones who get stuck in the mud. Itâs just frustrating as a fan, especially since tailgating is really the only consistent joy Charlotte athletics gives me.