How was the party at Gilligan's

Air conditioner might help ;)

I enjoyed it! More space coolers would have been nice, but it's summer in Texas. It's going to be hot. Running out of food and beer did suck. The lines for food were LONG! Over all though I had a blast and would definitely do it again. Is it true we hammered 35 kegs in 4 hours?

I enjoyed myself. As others said, food line was long but I had plenty to eat. Glad I ate early though since it seems the food was slim later.

Overall nice job though. I'd go again.

We had a blast would do again.

For those who didn't get the food or drinks that they expected, let me apologize for the LSU Dallas Alumni Chapter. The tailgate party was supposed to be from 1:00-7:00 and we would have had plenty to eat and drink if it happened like that. But when we were setting up for the party we saw over 200 people lined up at the Will Call at 11:30, waiting to get into the party. As hot as it was we decided to let the people in 1 1/2 hrs early so that they could be comfortable, as opposed to broiling in the eat. So, because we started the party very early we did run out of food and drinks much earlier than we should have.

We did go through 45 (yes, 45) kegs of beer yesterday and enough food to feed an army. But because we let people in much earlier than we had planned on, our supplies didn't last until 7:00. We apologize for that.

Thanks to all of you who did come. All the net proceeds we made off the tailgate party go into our scholarship fund for local kids who want to go to LSU. The people from our chapter all worked as volunteers planning and putting this thing together and working it at Gilligan's. Hat's off to them for all their hard work.

BayouBengalBoy please email me at hilbertcliff@yahoo.com.

GEAUX TIGERS!
The UAB game next week is set for 6:00 on ESPNU.

4 of us went. Two TCU fans and two LSU

Our first Dallas alumni event (3 of have LSU credits/degrees)

Gilligans staff and DAA people were nice especially to the two of use wearing TCU garb, service at bars was good, food was tasty, music selection was good, there seemed to be enogh space for everyone and the shuttle to the stadium was clean and quick.

Sadly though food was limited in quantity and lines were too long. The music volume was loud but appropriate. However, the line for food was 4 ft in front of head level speakers making it uncomfortable. Parking was close to the bar and supposedly a perk but it was just a portion of the same "free public parking" lot everyone had access to. The 2 TVs outside at the tent were not sufficient. More TV's were needed and mounting them higher up would help. There were no fans or mist coolers outside in 100 degree temps. You ran out of bottled water several times and by 5 pm had no more to refill the ice tubs. There was no iced tea that I saw. All the areas that had lines (food, bars, bathrooms) were in the sun and unshaded. Post game I expected to come back to an ongoing party but the place was basically shut down, presumably because of lack of food/drinks.


For 4 people I am certain we could have spent far less than 260 dollars and sat in an airconditioned sports bar with lots of TV's ate what we chose, drank what we chose, and paid for a taxi to and from the game.

Good call on the Abita beer, get more purple haze next time. As I recall two years ago, there were many more TVs to watch games, misters to cool off people under the tents, and a lot more food choices. Overall a great job, the event was nice, but didn't stack up to two years ago.

More fans and TVs were needed. Should have had Atleast 2 lines for the food booth. Running out of water was a huge thing. Especially in 100+ degree heat. Like others have said $65 a person is a decent amount of money to pay if what is included runs out before the shut down time. We had 12 people in our group. We don't mind supporting alum and future students but supply what is advertised.

I can't say that the statements in here are incorrect, but they are very different than what I saw. Here are a few observations:

1.) I was in the restaurant from 11:30 to 1:00, but not for the official party (we had another tailgate to go to). The 2 guys with us who had paid were not allowed to go in until 1:00, so they stayed and eat and drank with us for an hour and a half until that side opened. I'm not sure where the 200 people at 11:30 went, but I would say they were not eating and drinking on their party ticket.

2.) We were literally at the will call at 11:30. It had 2 other groups along with us. BTW, the will call directions were misleading. The directions said the will call was on the corner of I believe Abrams and something else (wherever that courthouse was). There were us and another group walking into the business actually open on that corning bugging them for directions. If you guys do it there again, put it either on that side, or put the directions out to say it is in the opposite parking lot from whatever corner that courthouse building is on. People were circling around to try to find the will call. Maybe put a sign at the street. I'm sure there are a million ways to fix that.

3.) The heavyset girl with the red hair taking tickets was pretty aggressive/obnoxious, and was flat out giving misinformation. She told us J Gilligan's would be shutdown for the tiger party. Since we were told it didn't start until 1:00, we figured we would go in before they "closed" just to get out of the heat. When I mentioned the restaurant would close for the private party, the staff looked at me like I had two heads. We then walked back to the car, and the portly girl asked us again what we decided. She originally told us, and another group walking up, that you can't even go in the bar without a $70 wrist band. Not true. The bar stayed open the whole time. She was stopping everyone walking by or yelling over toward the bar. Really bizarre hustle.

4.) In the future, I would come up with a way to have it somewhere where it is not competing with the regular customers of a restaurant. For example, two people could sit there and eat and drink watching football on tv until they get bored with the place for much less than $140. You can park at the restaurant for free, and they provide their own $8 shuttle service that covers the round trip. The free parking that came with the $70 ticket was also a little further walk than a parking lot that free. lol

5.) Running out of food -- All I can say, this is beyond no. This is a hell no. You absolutely cannot charge that kind of coin and run out of the very thing you were selling. For that mark alone, I would say it was highly unsuccessful. Sure, I heard the excuse posted earlier, but you don't just shut the doors early and say sorry. You should have done something for those that paid.

I understand this was a fund raiser, and the purpose was to turn a hefty profit for the association. However, assuming that half of the people will be female, and many will not stay very long, you could have charged $30 or $40. That would have still yielded a decent fund raiser, and would have not have left a bunch of tiger fans saying they would not do it again. I think the food and drinks running out was the big reason many won't do it again, but the $60 or $70 ticket makes it worse.

Good points and will consider imple4menting for future events.

We did not get the food or space that we contracted for from J Gilligan's. Felt like we were being undermined by the venue all day. This ended up not being what we had planned. We felt we had done well with the Oregon game and this venue would be good again. Never again will we use J Gilligan's, In my opinion he scammed us and constantly tried to undermine what we were doing. Fortunately most of our guests were not affected however some were and that was not acceptable to us.

We went through 45 kegs of beer and would have had more Abita had it not been $40 more per keg.

We had misters at the last event and had complaints about them getting everyone and their food and clothing wet so we tried to do without them. Better mister management was probably the answer and will definitely look to that for future events. Also, placing fans so that they could not be hoarded by people is another thing we learned.

Putting an event like this together with an all volunteer member force for the number of people that attended will certainly cause some hiccups.

In the future, we will not allow walkups in the event until one hour after the start time so that people that pre-register are allowed in ahead. We will also include a disclaimer about the quantity of food available after a certain arrival time.

Thanks for your comments.