SpartanRocky admits he was involved in MSU tailgating restrictions

I have to get there early to secure our spot and fire up the BBQ pit. Would be nice if I could do some longer cooks instead of trying to rush a brisket in 5 hours. 

I don't blame the administration in that you don't want people going out to the games just to get drunk. The tailgate is fun but the main attraction should be the football game. 

Munn was so completely out of control. God I miss it.

Nordic wrote:
That said, even before the 7/9/1 rule, it was still 6am for the earliest arrival time (or something like that).  I seriously don't think 1-3 hours is the issue (I can actually sleep my old ass in so I like it).  Fucking with lot assignments, increasing donor donations (which I don't have a problem with I would pay double for my tix), lack of pissers/public urination tickets and crack downs on minors are probably more to blame.  I would also add that we've gotten spoiled.  'Back in the day' we were there solely for the tailgate.  Now the team is sweet good and no one GAF about coming early for Purdue.

My thing is people would come in whenever before, now it's a shit show 7/9/1 (obviously worse at 9 even more so at 1). When you put in all the other changes you mentioned, then add on "oh yeah, don't show up til ___" that's stupid and pushes people away.

Since they're so worried about family and how terrible tailgating is... here's my family tailgating story growing up

-We'd be up in EL by 6 for every game. Get our spot and get everything set up outside. Family would walk to downtown EL, hit up tBagel Fragel and get a shit load of Fragels. Take those back to tailgate and eat breakfast. Maybe head back to EL for steve and barrys or a trip to sbs. Parking lot fills up. Campus is buzzing. Take a walk to the tennis courts and see it jammed full of students drinking and playing drinking games...didnt turn me into an alcoholic seeing that as a kid. Depending on game time either have lunch or head over to watch the band go in then go to the seats.



Here's the "family" tailgate story now that we've been protected from ourselves

-still get there very early to save our spot by dropping off my dad to sit by himself for a couple hours while the rest of the family goes and waits in the Frandor parking lot till its OK to come line up. There's been some shit days were he just sits there by himself in the rain for a couple hours. Try to time it just right so that we can get in line near the front but not too early as to have the cops come tell you to drive away aka circle around in traffic until it's OK to enter. 7/9/1 comes and they start letting people in. Once that initial wave is gone it dies down because people don't want to deal with that shit and don't show up til right before the game or have given up all together. Maybe go to the international center, no need to go to downtown EL because if anyone wanted anything they were in Frandor already. Don't even bother walking to tennis courts anymore because it's more depressing seeing more empty space than people tailgating. When I was an undergrad it was leave before 10 to get in line and have some people who got an ounce of power get a boner body searching you and herding you around.




Honestly if you're not a diehard fan there's so much more hassle to going to MSU than just staying home and watching on TV. The only person I can think of that doesn't have a large screen TV with HD is my 93 year old neighbor back home.

If I rooted for UM, I would get blackout drunk at football games, too.

I agree with just about everything in this thread. The biggest laugh is how you can't drink on Munn field but you wheel your tailgate 10 feet to the other side of the fence and get blitzed. Which is a cool tailgate scene by the way. There needs to be more improvised tailgating. Tailgating has become a slave to concrete donor lots at MSU. Anyone know what the tailgate on Adams Field is all about? I see cars parked in those spaces along West Circle all the time. The meters are always covered. Pretty sure it's not donor but I also don't think we could just roll up there and park.

For me there's still plenty of good reasons to come back for a game but this thread got me to think back to the 90's when I went to games. I did tailgate in Munn, but honestly most of the games I would wake up at like 12 noon so there wasn't really any time to tailgate. I'd scramble over to the stadium just to try to make the kickoff.

I think one of the main problems too is the weak and diluted schedules. The schedules were so much better back in my day, you'd rarely see a garbage opponent. I remember back in the day UofM fans used to talk serious trash about us scheduling games against CMU. They'd boast that you'd never see them schedule a team that weak. Well George Perles must have been a visionary because soon everyone in college followed that model. The first four games of the season will at best feature one interesting game now, the others are just complete blow outs. The only time to tune in for most people is if the phone sends an upset alert. Even UofM has problems selling tickets to games vs Kent State. People just don't care for low quality football.

The flow of the game is just awful now. You have so many tv time outs. You can literally have a sequence where a team scores a touchdown, then have to sit through a lengthy review to make sure the ball broke the plane, and the entire time they don't show the replays on the big screen so you are just left to watch football players rehydrate and huddle the entire time. Then the teams will set up for a FG, and then you'll get a tv break. Then there will be a kick off and then another TV break. There is like 15 minutes of stoppages just for 3 plays! Back in the 90's when every game wasn't televised the games had really good momentum, and had a much better pace.

I also think the sport just lends itself better to TV. For a three hour game there's typically 11 minutes of action. On tv they do a better job of filling all of the space with commentary, replays, and will zoom in so you can see if the refs call on the play was correct or not. From up in the stands forget about it, nobodies eyes are that good.

If I was a student today I can see why going to a house party or just hanging out at Cedar Village might be the better option.

Giant Moose wrote:The assault ended up not being true, too.

Huh... imagine that.

steveschneider wrote:For me there's still plenty of good reasons to come back for a game but this thread got me to think back to the 90's when I went to games. I did tailgate in Munn, but honestly most of the games I would wake up at like 12 noon so there wasn't really any time to tailgate. I'd scramble over to the stadium just to try to make the kickoff.

I think one of the main problems too is the weak and diluted schedules. The schedules were so much better back in my day, you'd rarely see a garbage opponent. I remember back in the day UofM fans used to talk serious trash about us scheduling games against CMU. They'd boast that you'd never see them schedule a team that weak. Well George Perles must have been a visionary because soon everyone in college followed that model. The first four games of the season will at best feature one interesting game now, the others are just complete blow outs. The only time to tune in for most people is if the phone sends an upset alert. Even UofM has problems selling tickets to games vs Kent State. People just don't care for low quality football.

The flow of the game is just awful now. You have so many tv time outs. You can literally have a sequence where a team scores a touchdown, then have to sit through a lengthy revue to make sure the ball broke the plane, and the entire time they don't show the replays on the big screen so you are just left to watch football players rehydrate and huddle the entire time. Then the teams will set up for a FG, and then you'll get a tv break. Then there will be a kick off and then another TV break. There is like 15 minutes of stoppages just for 3 plays! Back in the 90's when every game wasn't televised the games had really good momentum, and had a much better pace.

I also think the sport just lends itself better to TV. For a three hour game there's typically 11 minutes of action. On tv they do a better job of filling all of the space with commentary, replays, and will zoom in so you can see if the refs call on the play was correct or not. From up in the stands forget about it, nobodies eyes are that good.

If I was a student today I can see why going to a house party or just hanging out at Cedar Village might be the better option.

Great points. I agree with it all.

I was a bit young but I tailgated every game with my dad from 1992 on and nothing really seemed out of control (I stopped somewhere around 2005 when I moved out of state).... but again maybe I was just too young to get a real perspective of what was occurring. I've been to games since then and it's definitely changed... probably for the worse, it's much more tame and doesn't seem like such an event nowadays. A lot quieter.

It's disappointing seeing the student section so tame, too. They used to be the lifeblood of the stadium and keeping things hype.

xsan, the student section is still the lifeblood of SS. green seaters do not enjoy getting up and making some fucking noise, unfortunately.

restrictions can only hurt the experience, and obviously, it has. too bad hollis doesn't see this.

I don't think the student section is bad. 

I would like more people to care about Spartan Football and fill the stadium because, frankly, we're fucking awesome at football. But honestly....we're a niche program. I don't think any amount of success is gonna change that. MSU is in mid-Michigan. Not exactly a population center. 

We might get people around the country deciding to latch onto us, and maybe even kids around SE Michigan taking a liking to us, but I doubt it's going to result in continuous sellouts.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:xsan, the student section is still the lifeblood of SS. green seaters do not enjoy getting up and making some fucking noise, unfortunately.

restrictions can only hurt the experience, and obviously, it has. too bad hollis doesn't see this.

It is. I didn't mean to belittle it... I just wish the restrictions weren't so great as to affect the student section in the manner it has.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:xsan, the student section is still the lifeblood of SS. green seaters do not enjoy getting up and making some fucking noise, unfortunately.

restrictions can only hurt the experience, and obviously, it has. too bad hollis doesn't see this.

Hollis ultimately will go down as one of the best athletic directors we've ever had due to the tremendous success of football and hoops under him, but he's made a surprising amount of questionable decisions.

This includes agreeing to games at the directional schools, the proposed logo change, hiring a hockey commissioner with little coaching experience as a hockey coach, criticism of the student section last year, and signing the Nike extension two years before our deal expires.

I don't know how much he can control with what happens with the students or tailgating or if that is the Board or LAKS but he doesn't seem to lobby for either all that much.

Giant Moose wrote:

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:xsan, the student section is still the lifeblood of SS. green seaters do not enjoy getting up and making some fucking noise, unfortunately.

restrictions can only hurt the experience, and obviously, it has. too bad hollis doesn't see this.

Hollis ultimately will go down as one of the best athletic directors we've ever had due to the tremendous success of football and hoops under him, but he's made a surprising amount of questionable decisions.

This includes agreeing to games at the directional schools, the proposed logo change, hiring a hockey commissioner with little coaching experience as a hockey coach, criticism of the student section last year, and signing the Nike extension two years before our deal expires.

Ted Williams got into the Hall of Fame, and his batting average was "only" .400.  Hollis has far more hits than misses, IMHO.  We're lucky to have him, not to mention he's the reason we have Izzo AND Dantonio.  

Basketbowl.  Carrier game.  Looking into playing USC in Greece.  The man is a marketing genius, and people follow in his footsteps.  He's the trailblazer.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:I don't think the student section is bad. 

I would like more people to care about Spartan Football and fill the stadium because, frankly, we're fucking awesome at football. But honestly....we're a niche program. I don't think any amount of success is gonna change that. MSU is in mid-Michigan. Not exactly a population center. 

We might get people around the country deciding to latch onto us, and maybe even kids around SE Michigan taking a liking to us, but I doubt it's going to result in continuous sellouts.

We need our own batch of passionate Wal-spartans to really take it to the next level.

I'm FB friends with a good deal of Michigan grads and visited the ones that still live in A2 last year during the Indiana game. They are lamer than the green seaters everyone complains about. All of them can't stand UofM football believe it or not. Huge inconvenience every Saturday and they have contempt for the behavior of the people it attracts.

I think the Walverines really take that program to the next level. Every CMU grad I'm FB friends with are die hard Walverines that talk so much shit and belittle Sparty. Those are the passionate fans I encounter.

Time to start selling cheap MSU gear at Walmarts around the country.

Giant Moose wrote:

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:xsan, the student section is still the lifeblood of SS. green seaters do not enjoy getting up and making some fucking noise, unfortunately.

restrictions can only hurt the experience, and obviously, it has. too bad hollis doesn't see this.

Hollis ultimately will go down as one of the best athletic directors we've ever had due to the tremendous success of football and hoops under him, but he's made a surprising amount of questionable decisions.

This includes agreeing to games at the directional schools, the proposed logo change, hiring a hockey commissioner with little coaching experience as a hockey coach, criticism of the student section last year, and signing the Nike extension two years before our deal expires.

I don't know how much he can control with what happens with the students or tailgating or if that is the Board or LAKS but he doesn't seem to lobby for either all that much.

Anyone that is high up enough to make tailgaiting more of a party or make it more like the old days there's no way they will do it. If you hold a position at that high of a level you are going to be risk adverse. If you let up on restrictions and the press comes out with a negative headline it's a huge embarrassment.

Sounds like what went down in 04 is the MSU equivalent of Dean Wormer went on a campus inspection and saw Animal House level partying. Whether there was an actual sexual assault or not there was a ton of bad press and I'm sure those trustees were embarrassed.

Why would you be friends with UM fans? Grads are the most obnoxious self-involved people on the planet. Non-grad fans are mostly classless losers who prioritize meth over all other life choices.

Turtleneck wrote:Why would you be friends with UM fans? Grads are the most obnoxious self-involved people on the planet. Non-grad fans are mostly classless losers who prioritize meth over all other life choices.

Two of them met at MSU they went there for grad school.

They sound acceptable. Got their life in order.

F Rocky. Dude is a great representative of rcmb.

SpartanInNH wrote:

Giant Moose wrote:
Hollis ultimately will go down as one of the best athletic directors we've ever had due to the tremendous success of football and hoops under him, but he's made a surprising amount of questionable decisions.

This includes agreeing to games at the directional schools, the proposed logo change, hiring a hockey commissioner with little coaching experience as a hockey coach, criticism of the student section last year, and signing the Nike extension two years before our deal expires.

Ted Williams got into the Hall of Fame, and his batting average was "only" .400.  Hollis has far more hits than misses, IMHO.  We're lucky to have him, not to mention he's the reason we have Izzo AND Dantonio.  

Basketbowl.  Carrier game.  Looking into playing USC in Greece.  The man is a marketing genius, and people follow in his footsteps.  He's the trailblazer.

I won't trade him for any thing. Just wish he'd stfu about football attendance since hes 75% of the reason

steveschneider wrote:

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:I don't think the student section is bad. 

I would like more people to care about Spartan Football and fill the stadium because, frankly, we're fucking awesome at football. But honestly....we're a niche program. I don't think any amount of success is gonna change that. MSU is in mid-Michigan. Not exactly a population center. 

We might get people around the country deciding to latch onto us, and maybe even kids around SE Michigan taking a liking to us, but I doubt it's going to result in continuous sellouts.

We need our own batch of passionate Wal-spartans to really take it to the next level.

I'm FB friends with a good deal of Michigan grads and visited the ones that still live in A2 last year during the Indiana game. They are lamer than the green seaters everyone complains about. All of them can't stand UofM football believe it or not. Huge inconvenience every Saturday and they have contempt for the behavior of the people it attracts.

I think the Walverines really take that program to the next level. Every CMU grad I'm FB friends with are die hard Walverines that talk so much shit and belittle Sparty. Those are the passionate fans I encounter.

Time to start selling cheap MSU gear at Walmarts around the country.

No we absolutely do not. That's the beginning of the end for a program. Next think you know you are Psu or fsu

Blanch32 wrote:

SpartanInNH wrote:

Ted Williams got into the Hall of Fame, and his batting average was "only" .400.  Hollis has far more hits than misses, IMHO.  We're lucky to have him, not to mention he's the reason we have Izzo AND Dantonio.  

Basketbowl.  Carrier game.  Looking into playing USC in Greece.  The man is a marketing genius, and people follow in his footsteps.  He's the trailblazer.

I won't trade him for any thing. Just wish he'd stfu about football attendance since hes 75% of the reason

Yup. People really won't understand why the student section is what it is today until they go through it themselves. I've been a broken record with this subject and try not to waSte my time explaining why for the 100th time but it's hard to see an opportunity wasted by admin

Hollis is the man.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:

Blanch32 wrote:

I won't trade him for any thing. Just wish he'd stfu about football attendance since hes 75% of the reason

Yup. People really won't understand why the student section is what it is today until they go through it themselves. I've been a broken record with this subject and try not to waSte my time explaining why for the 100th time but it's hard to see an opportunity wasted by admin

I've been making similar arguments since 2005.

Here's the reality:

Dantonio doesn't come here if not for the tailgates of the 80s and 90s up until 2004.

Even DiBaggio didn't kill of tailgating back then and he had far more reason and personal beliefs.

....and if he did, we are basically Illinois today

SpartanInNH wrote:

Giant Moose wrote:
Hollis ultimately will go down as one of the best athletic directors we've ever had due to the tremendous success of football and hoops under him, but he's made a surprising amount of questionable decisions.

This includes agreeing to games at the directional schools, the proposed logo change, hiring a hockey commissioner with little coaching experience as a hockey coach, criticism of the student section last year, and signing the Nike extension two years before our deal expires.

Ted Williams got into the Hall of Fame, and his batting average was "only" .400.  Hollis has far more hits than misses, IMHO.  We're lucky to have him, not to mention he's the reason we have Izzo AND Dantonio.  

Basketbowl.  Carrier game.  Looking into playing USC in Greece.  The man is a marketing genius, and people follow in his footsteps.  He's the trailblazer.

This irritates me a ton about Hollis. He's done a lot of good things, but people get all up in arms when others point out that he hasn't been the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Yeah, he's done a lot of good for MSU, but he's also done some not so great things.

Like Giant Moose said, the way Hollis has handled our hockey program has been dismal at best, and comes off like he treats a sport that can turn a profit as an afterthought. That irritates me the most.

Him signing the Nike extension was a bad move. Wait a little longer and we probably make more money as we proved last year that the Rose Bowl season wasn't a fluke. I'm not saying MSU isn't fairly compensated now, but I think if he waited a year we would be getting more because Nike seemingly has a bigger budget now. We didn't, and I think Hollis signed that extension partly to hedge his bets on our success.

And people are right. Hollis has basically killed the student section. I don't think a lot of you understand, because you went to MSU years ago when they were lax about things. He's made it much more appealing to tailgate off campus and far away from the stadium. Then when you have a noon kickoff, it's almost not even worth it to get to the game because, you have to stop tailgating fairly early if you want to catch all the action because they've made it such a slog to get into the stadium. Then in the stadium, Hollis has the band stop playing songs that invoke vulgarity, like "Hockey Cheer," in an attempt to make Spartan Stadium more family friendly. It's also incredibly crowded because they corral everyone into the lower bowl, so there's not enough room to stand up unless you're standing at an angle more perpendicular to the field.

My my senior year, hardly anyone I knew still went to football games save for the big ones, because it was such a hassle going to football games and because they've made things not very fun for students. I only went (which sucked sometimes, because it made me miss a lot of tailgates friends threw off-campus) because I liked being in the student section, really love seeing the Spartan Marching Band play, and because I knew I wouldn't be close enough to see MSU live on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. The student section my senior year in 2011, was so much worse than it was in 2009, and Hollis is a big reason behind that.

He's not Jesus. He's an AD, and ADs make mistakes. The guy does deserve criticism sometimes but a lot of Spartans take issue with that.

HT just nails it. Bravo.

I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the situation, what's keeping the students from tailgating behind the library or the computer building? Close to the stadium, plenty of room to grill and drink.

I get it regarding entry to the stadium, that system sounds terribly inconvenient. My .02 tailgate behind the library.

I was indifferent about the people complaining about the tailgating scene until the OSU game last year. Friends and I set up a tailgate close to Auditorium and Farm (Gilchrist Hall I think, I always forget the name). Anyway it's a fucking night game against Ohio State and the lot was half empty all day and campus was dead. OSU fans were asking us if we were serious. I had no answer for them because it was so god damn pathetic.

I hate hearing about "the good old days" because the past 3 years have sucked tailgating-wise. I shouldn't complain bc the team is so good but all my relatives that graduated from MSU have way better stories than me.

Tim Wakefield wrote:I was indifferent about the people complaining about the tailgating scene until the OSU game last year. Friends and I set up a tailgate close to Auditorium and Farm (Gilchrist Hall I think, I always forget the name). Anyway it's a fucking night game against Ohio State and the lot was half empty all day and campus was dead. OSU fans were asking us if we were serious.  I had no answer for them because it was so god damn pathetic.

I hate hearing about "the good old days" because the past 3 years have sucked tailgating-wise. I shouldn't complain bc the team is so good but all my relatives that graduated from MSU have way better stories than me.

Yeah, I hear on various sites how amazing MSU's tailgate scene used to be and I feel like we really lost out. It was fun partying at people's houses off-campus before the games at least.

So do we hate SpartanRocky?

Masturbates wrote:So do we hate SpartanRocky?

I think we hate everyone that looks at MSU football positively.

InTenSity wrote:

Masturbates wrote:So do we hate SpartanRocky?

I think we hate everyone that looks at MSU football positively.

I hate sarcastic people.

I hate everybody. But especially Nigel.

Masturbates wrote:So do we hate SpartanRocky?

I should thank him for saving me money. With MSU's current atmosphere, I'm cutting down the trips to East Lansing.

You guys that are having issues with the bathrooms and if you have a car you should do what the NY Taxi drivers do. Just piss in a Gatorade bottle, put the cap on and leave it out on the ground.

If there's enough of them left around I think Hollis will get the message.

steveschneider wrote:You guys that are having issues with the bathrooms and if you have a car you should do what the NY Taxi drivers do. Just piss in a Gatorade bottle, put the cap on and leave it out on the ground.

If there's enough of them left around I think Hollis will get the message.

Aren't some of the buildings open?

Could always go in the Union or the International Center if the line's bad, and I bet Anthony Hall is open too if the Dairy Store is open on Gameday.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:Yup. People really won't understand why the student section is what it is today until they go through it themselves. I've been a broken record with this subject and try not to waSte my time explaining why for the 100th time but it's hard to see an opportunity wasted by admin

Can't the students do something about it? Hell, scUM students got their AD fired.

Actually nevermind, my bad. MSU is in East Lansing. I forgot. If even 4 students are together protesting there, they'll get tear-gassed.

Giant Moose wrote:

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:Yup. People really won't understand why the student section is what it is today until they go through it themselves. I've been a broken record with this subject and try not to waSte my time explaining why for the 100th time but it's hard to see an opportunity wasted by admin

Can't the students do something about it? Hell, scUM students got their AD fired.

Actually nevermind, my bad. MSU is in East Lansing. I forgot. If even 4 students are together protesting there, they'll get tear-gassed.

Most of the students don't really care enough anymore. It's that distant, where tailgating was great. It's moved off campus to houses and frats, which are fun, but will never be the same.

It's kind of depressing to keep talking about this. The program deserves better.

HT wrote:

steveschneider wrote:You guys that are having issues with the bathrooms and if you have a car you should do what the NY Taxi drivers do. Just piss in a Gatorade bottle, put the cap on and leave it out on the ground.

If there's enough of them left around I think Hollis will get the message.

Aren't some of the buildings open?

Could always go in the Union or the International Center if the line's bad, and I bet Anthony Hall is open too if the Dairy Store is open on Gameday.

Most all the buildings used to be open but they closed them. Lines at the union, for chick's at least, get pretty crazy.

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:

Giant Moose wrote:
Can't the students do something about it? Hell, scUM students got their AD fired.

Actually nevermind, my bad. MSU is in East Lansing. I forgot. If even 4 students are together protesting there, they'll get tear-gassed.

Most of the students don't really care enough anymore. It's that distant, where tailgating was great. It's moved off campus to houses and frats, which are fun, but will never be the same.

It's kind of depressing to keep talking about this. The program deserves better.

Is it criminal?