re: I think the current tailgate scene plays a massive role in fans leaving early

Probably the traffic.
I’ve always stayed in BR but stayed in Lafayette this time because it’s so much cheaper.
The cops won’t let you go to the bridge - why the hell do they make you take river road all the way to the governors mansion? Stupid.

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I’m almost 40 and went to every single lsu game from 1989-1994. Home and away

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Dude you just referenced years where you were between 2 and 7 years old. I don’t know why you even did that. How the frick does a 7 year old know whether it was bigger than or now?

A decade ago you were 27

Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, you’re an adult now and see things differently

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Traffic has always been the same though

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yeah... no

I've gone to the games since the 80's. It was on the steep side of tolerable then... the stadium held 80K.

They added the east upper deck in 2000, pushing capacity to 92K. Traffic became pretty bad, but the program was also emerging into an elite state, which made it bearable.

They expanded the south endzone in 2014, pushing it to 102K. This coincided with the decline from elite to "just" good.

At this same time, Baton Rouge itself saw a huge shift in population. In the 80's, there were lots of people coming from north of campus. If you are old enough, you remember Fla Blvd being the divide between NBR and SBR. That's shifted to at least the 10-12 split now.

During this time, we've seen significant removal of access to parking on campus. I used to park by the Quad a lot, or at the Union. We later shifted to by the Law School. Parking by the Ag Center was considered "far away".

So, more people, less parking, a lesser product that costs more to attend, and a higher percentage of people heading (initially) the same way out.

But what I don't get, is this burning desire to leave once you're there. We used to go out to the bars, and not get home til nearly 3. Even families would hang out, maybe tailgate a bit afterwards. If you're going to be stuck down there anyway, you might as well stay at the game the whole way through.

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I’m almost 40 and went to every single lsu game from 1989-1994. Home and away

And the tailgating in the last decade

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So your parents brought you when you were 3-8

I think it’s an “LSU thing”. Always has been.

It was never an issue before but Perry the younger generations can’t hang and the now much older generations can’t hang either.

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last decade and change is far far far bigger than ever. It’s not debatable

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I quit tailgating around 2006 because of all the BS, paying, changing the regular spaces, etc. It quit being fun.

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But what I don't get, is this burning desire to leave once you're there

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I’ve seen this point a couple of times in this thread.
IMO, that is what the OP was talking about.
Yes, traffic is an issue and people leave early to beat it. But the reason they are leaving the game, that supposedly they came for, is because that is not what they came for. They came for the tailgate, and to go to the stadium and feel the energy at the beginning of the game. Once they have done that, they have accomplished their goal for the day. The goal was to go and hang out with friends, party, drink, and feel that excitement. They came for the experience, not for the actual play-by-play of the game. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it really does mean that for a significant percentage of people the actual football game is only there as the catalyst for the party.

When my kids were young and often had Saturday morning activities, I would leave and make the several hour drive to arrive just in time for kickoff, and come home as soon as the game ended. People asked me all the time why I was going if I did not have time to tailgate. I would often get quizzical looks when I would tell them that I wasn’t gonna miss any of the game.

Sounds like a great idea.