http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle....94.740817133.1497966350-2110811208.1432418167
To learn more about TurnKey tailgating opportunities this fall visit: www.tailgateguys.com/home/unc or call 919-869-5486.
By Lee Pace, GoHeels.com
Kenan Stadium opened 90 years ago this fall and from the beginning was lauded for its high aesthetic quotient. William Coker, the esteemed UNC botany professor who created the arboretum that still exists in his name, coordinated the landscaping around the stadium, and architect Arthur Cleveland Nash deemed there be no one large parking lot nearby; it would enhance the beauty of the venue and its natural envelope, Nash reasoned, to build access and egress avenues via stone-ground paths routed through the woods from every direction.
Since that 1927 template was established, Carolina students, alumni and fans have developed autumn Saturday tailgating rituals in those numerous parking and gathering enclaves around campus. Certainly the Bell Tower Lot on the west end of the stadium and the Rams Head Lot on the east were lively venues for pre- and post-game repasts prior to major construction projects in the 21st century. The more campus has grown in recent times—particularly since the building boom financed by a 2000 bond referendum that earmarked $600 million for the Chapel Hill campus—the more the football tailgating scene has gotten fragmented.
“We actually have more tailgating spots than most people realize, but the perception because it's so spread out is that we don't have a good tailgating environment at Carolina,” says Rick Steinbacher, senior associate athletic director at Carolina. “In surveys we conduct among our fans and season-ticket holders, tailgating is high on the list of game-day improvements they'd like to see.”
Toward that end, the Carolina Athletic Department is entering into a watershed partnership this fall with a company nearly a decade old that specializes in managing and operating tailgate venues across the Southeast. Tailgate Guys, headquartered in Opelika, Ala., will begin marketing its services for tented villages and a varied menu of catering options for the 2017 Tar Heel football season.
“I think this is a game-changer for us,” says Steinbacher. “The level of quality operations and tailgating experience Tailgate Guys provide is something I think our fans will embrace very quickly. We'll start slowly in 2017 and over time expand what we do with them.”
Tailgate Guys is headed by President and CEO Parker Duffey, a 2006 Auburn graduate in landscape design who was working as a project manager for a commercial construction firm in 2008 when he conceived the idea for the proverbial better mouse trap. He met an Alabama grad and fan who was working for a small operation in Tuscaloosa that hired students to “squat” on preferred tailgating locations leading up to games and then would help their clients set up their tents, tables and chairs for their Saturday festivities.
“I thought that was a great idea on so many levels,” Duffey says. “I learned about the concept on a Saturday, then spent all day Sunday writing a business plan. It was not an original idea—I took it and put my twist on it.”
He approached fellow Auburn grad Michael Otwell with the idea of partnering, and soon after Tailgate Guys was hatched. Duffey quit his day job two weeks before the first Auburn game of the 2009 season and that year they hosted more than 50 groups for Auburn home games—supplying tents, chairs, tables, linens, televisions, coolers and a varied menu of dining options. The business has grown 40 to 60 percent a year and now has more than 100 staff members running tailgate operations at more than a dozen universities—including Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Georgia Tech, Penn State and Virginia Tech.
“Our model is based on creating a community,” Duffey says. “We take a large green space and organize it. It can be as simple a tent, table and chairs for 10 friends to a 20 by 20 tent with a TV, fans and cocktail tables. You make the booking and we hold your hand through the entire process. You pull your car up to a designated location on game day, our ‘butlers' meet you at your car and get you set up in your tent. We do all the work so you can have fun enjoying game day with your friends.”
Carolina officials began a conversation with Duffey and his team last fall and the formal announcement of the partnership was made June 21. Tailgate Guys will operate several “villages” around campus, two of the most noteworthy being the amphitheater to the west of Kenan Football Center and the four quads within the hedges around the Bell Tower. There are also nooks outside the south gate of the stadium between it and Student Health Services and in the woods to the north of the stadium along Stadium Drive where tailgating options will be available.
Tar Heel Town, the family-friendly site with kids games, entertainment and food trucks, is moving back to Polk Place, where it originally was positioned, and will occupy the ground just in front of Wilson Library. The northern half of Polk Place closer to South Building will be sectioned off for big events campus-wide in nature. For example, UNC will use that area for homecoming and monogram festivities prior to the Miami game on Oct. 28.
“Chapel Hill as a town and a campus has a certain nostalgia that a lot of campuses do not have,” Duffey says. “It's a special place. For us to tie in is a natural fit. We will build a sense of scene and community and culture that will be very unique. You do not have a lot of open spaces, but instead you have beautiful courtyards and old oak trees, meandering walkways that wrap around and through campus and the woods. It's a sharp scene. I think we can really enhance it.”
Brendan Riley has recently moved from Austin, Texas, to Winston-Salem, where he will run Tailgate Guys' Atlantic Region.
“Come game day, I'm not sure if we're going to have a better location than we will in Chapel Hill,” says Riley. “Rather than working in one or two main parking lots, we actually prefer to utilize the green spaces and nooks and crannies around campus. You feel like you're more engrained into the campus rather than being in the middle of a big parking lot. Between the amphitheatre and the Bell Tower, we can create a really strong atmosphere.”
Carolina officials and Tailgate Guys staff emphasize that taking care of University grounds and proper clean-up are priorities.
Brian Chacos, a Rams Club official and a former Tar Heel football player, thinks the tented village in the west end amphitheatre will create an outstanding setting for the football team's Victory Walk upon arrival 2.5 hours before kick-off and that ratcheting up the overall tailgate experience will elevate the whole of Carolina football.
“From a fan and donor aspect, we needed to make six or seven Saturdays kind of ‘lock down days,' reasons to be in Kenan Stadium and Chapel Hill, celebrating Carolina football,” Chacos says. “This new tailgating operation adds another wrinkle and element to that idea. We want our fans to say, ‘I'm not going to the beach, I'm not going to the mountains, I'm going to Chapel Hill.' This helps brighten the idea of why you should come six or seven Saturdays every fall. These guys do things in a first-class manner, and the more our fans understand and experience their tailgate venues, the higher the demand and usage will be.
“It's a PGA, U.S. Open type of turnkey tent setup that they bring to a college football atmosphere. It fits Carolina perfectly.”
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace recently released a coffee-table book on Kenan Stadium, “Football in a Forest,” and writes about Tar Heel football throughout the year on Goheels.com.
To learn more about TurnKey tailgating opportunities this fall visit: www.tailgateguys.com/home/unc or call 919-869-5486.
By Lee Pace, GoHeels.com
Kenan Stadium opened 90 years ago this fall and from the beginning was lauded for its high aesthetic quotient. William Coker, the esteemed UNC botany professor who created the arboretum that still exists in his name, coordinated the landscaping around the stadium, and architect Arthur Cleveland Nash deemed there be no one large parking lot nearby; it would enhance the beauty of the venue and its natural envelope, Nash reasoned, to build access and egress avenues via stone-ground paths routed through the woods from every direction.
Since that 1927 template was established, Carolina students, alumni and fans have developed autumn Saturday tailgating rituals in those numerous parking and gathering enclaves around campus. Certainly the Bell Tower Lot on the west end of the stadium and the Rams Head Lot on the east were lively venues for pre- and post-game repasts prior to major construction projects in the 21st century. The more campus has grown in recent times—particularly since the building boom financed by a 2000 bond referendum that earmarked $600 million for the Chapel Hill campus—the more the football tailgating scene has gotten fragmented.
“We actually have more tailgating spots than most people realize, but the perception because it's so spread out is that we don't have a good tailgating environment at Carolina,” says Rick Steinbacher, senior associate athletic director at Carolina. “In surveys we conduct among our fans and season-ticket holders, tailgating is high on the list of game-day improvements they'd like to see.”
Toward that end, the Carolina Athletic Department is entering into a watershed partnership this fall with a company nearly a decade old that specializes in managing and operating tailgate venues across the Southeast. Tailgate Guys, headquartered in Opelika, Ala., will begin marketing its services for tented villages and a varied menu of catering options for the 2017 Tar Heel football season.
“I think this is a game-changer for us,” says Steinbacher. “The level of quality operations and tailgating experience Tailgate Guys provide is something I think our fans will embrace very quickly. We'll start slowly in 2017 and over time expand what we do with them.”
Tailgate Guys is headed by President and CEO Parker Duffey, a 2006 Auburn graduate in landscape design who was working as a project manager for a commercial construction firm in 2008 when he conceived the idea for the proverbial better mouse trap. He met an Alabama grad and fan who was working for a small operation in Tuscaloosa that hired students to “squat” on preferred tailgating locations leading up to games and then would help their clients set up their tents, tables and chairs for their Saturday festivities.
“I thought that was a great idea on so many levels,” Duffey says. “I learned about the concept on a Saturday, then spent all day Sunday writing a business plan. It was not an original idea—I took it and put my twist on it.”
He approached fellow Auburn grad Michael Otwell with the idea of partnering, and soon after Tailgate Guys was hatched. Duffey quit his day job two weeks before the first Auburn game of the 2009 season and that year they hosted more than 50 groups for Auburn home games—supplying tents, chairs, tables, linens, televisions, coolers and a varied menu of dining options. The business has grown 40 to 60 percent a year and now has more than 100 staff members running tailgate operations at more than a dozen universities—including Texas, Texas A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Georgia Tech, Penn State and Virginia Tech.
“Our model is based on creating a community,” Duffey says. “We take a large green space and organize it. It can be as simple a tent, table and chairs for 10 friends to a 20 by 20 tent with a TV, fans and cocktail tables. You make the booking and we hold your hand through the entire process. You pull your car up to a designated location on game day, our ‘butlers' meet you at your car and get you set up in your tent. We do all the work so you can have fun enjoying game day with your friends.”
Carolina officials began a conversation with Duffey and his team last fall and the formal announcement of the partnership was made June 21. Tailgate Guys will operate several “villages” around campus, two of the most noteworthy being the amphitheater to the west of Kenan Football Center and the four quads within the hedges around the Bell Tower. There are also nooks outside the south gate of the stadium between it and Student Health Services and in the woods to the north of the stadium along Stadium Drive where tailgating options will be available.
Tar Heel Town, the family-friendly site with kids games, entertainment and food trucks, is moving back to Polk Place, where it originally was positioned, and will occupy the ground just in front of Wilson Library. The northern half of Polk Place closer to South Building will be sectioned off for big events campus-wide in nature. For example, UNC will use that area for homecoming and monogram festivities prior to the Miami game on Oct. 28.
“Chapel Hill as a town and a campus has a certain nostalgia that a lot of campuses do not have,” Duffey says. “It's a special place. For us to tie in is a natural fit. We will build a sense of scene and community and culture that will be very unique. You do not have a lot of open spaces, but instead you have beautiful courtyards and old oak trees, meandering walkways that wrap around and through campus and the woods. It's a sharp scene. I think we can really enhance it.”
Brendan Riley has recently moved from Austin, Texas, to Winston-Salem, where he will run Tailgate Guys' Atlantic Region.
“Come game day, I'm not sure if we're going to have a better location than we will in Chapel Hill,” says Riley. “Rather than working in one or two main parking lots, we actually prefer to utilize the green spaces and nooks and crannies around campus. You feel like you're more engrained into the campus rather than being in the middle of a big parking lot. Between the amphitheatre and the Bell Tower, we can create a really strong atmosphere.”
Carolina officials and Tailgate Guys staff emphasize that taking care of University grounds and proper clean-up are priorities.
Brian Chacos, a Rams Club official and a former Tar Heel football player, thinks the tented village in the west end amphitheatre will create an outstanding setting for the football team's Victory Walk upon arrival 2.5 hours before kick-off and that ratcheting up the overall tailgate experience will elevate the whole of Carolina football.
“From a fan and donor aspect, we needed to make six or seven Saturdays kind of ‘lock down days,' reasons to be in Kenan Stadium and Chapel Hill, celebrating Carolina football,” Chacos says. “This new tailgating operation adds another wrinkle and element to that idea. We want our fans to say, ‘I'm not going to the beach, I'm not going to the mountains, I'm going to Chapel Hill.' This helps brighten the idea of why you should come six or seven Saturdays every fall. These guys do things in a first-class manner, and the more our fans understand and experience their tailgate venues, the higher the demand and usage will be.
“It's a PGA, U.S. Open type of turnkey tent setup that they bring to a college football atmosphere. It fits Carolina perfectly.”
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace recently released a coffee-table book on Kenan Stadium, “Football in a Forest,” and writes about Tar Heel football throughout the year on Goheels.com.
