This confirms no car-less tailgating on the mall area. However, Williams grass, Church St, and McNamara plaza as 2 car-less areas is pretty promising. I thought for sure the U would wuss out and block everything from being allowed. Even if these are U-run activities, at least it is something promoting people to come in and enjoy some festivities prior to Gameday.
And although it seemed like tailgating may be not so great of an atmosphere, there are 3790 spaces available on the East bank ALONE for tailgating - meaning 11370 people (3/spot) can tailgate within 5 blocks of the stadium. Add to that the 5734 more lot/ramp spots on EB that are non-tailgating where people may be able to utilize Church St or McNamara plaza for activities (or Sally's, Sterbs, Big Ten, Campus Pizza, etc etc) and the East Bank will be hopping on gameday.
If people actually create a tailgating culture, we could have a cool thing going - some lots (like the ones by the track) are separated a bit and could develop their own traditions. I actually prefer this (ares with trees, separation, sprawled into the neighborhoods) to a huge parking area with a sea of cars (think Miller Park). Also remember WB has another 415 spots (1k+ people) for tailgating and another 1200 non-tailgating spots.
Add in (again) the fact that Dinkytown and Stadium Village will have street parking, house parties, and more restaurant/bar involvement and this could/will make for a really great area for games. I think it just might take a few years for all the kinks to work out and for people/students to figure out what works well. Plus, we don't need (nor will there ever be) 50,000 or more tailgaters. It isn't for everyone. Some people will show up right before the game. Others have kids or things to do. That is great. But if in 3 years we have a good culture of 15,000+ people tailgating and 10k students partying, I think we will have arrived.
