First off, I'd like to thank
@UTVols for the recap. It's nice to hear about game day atmosphere here from a fan from a historically good program/fanbase.
Now that we've turned this into a thread about RV tailgating and I've read every post, I'm trying to understand why so many are vehemently against it. I feel like it fits in with this strange phenomenon recently where if there is something that you wouldn't do or don't like, although it doesn't affect you negatively at all, or at least very minimally, people think it's ok to aggressively oppose it. From what I've gathered on here, there are three main reasons for opposition...
1.) The thought that it would be an eyesore for Boulder.
As stated before, it's in a parking lot that already would have vehicles. It's 6 to 7 weekends a year. It isn't a homeless tent city with people taking dumps in the open. This seems like Boulder pretension. It has at the most a minimal impact on anyone on campus or in the community. Give me a break.
2.) Nobody would use the spots/participate.
Based on what? There have been a few, just on this thread, that said they would use it. I currently don't own a camper, but have been debating purchasing one. If this was available it would put me over the edge and I'd buy one and utilize this at least once a season. I'm just under an hour drive east, but I would go up and stay. The pain in the ass of dealing with traffic on HWY 36, dealing with the mess that is getting on and off campus on game day, and not having to worry about getting there and back while drinking make it beyond worth it. I have a lot of friends who live in eastern Colorado who would do it. I feel like it has potential, especially once people saw how fun the atmosphere was, and as more fun and wild setups continued to show up. A good atmosphere doesn't spontaneously manifest out of thin air. It has to start and build when people see it's a lot of fun and worthwhile. TBH, I think the general inconvenience of getting into Boulder, finding a place to stay, and trying to park on game day actually makes this more likely to be successful than people think.
3.) Bad use of money.
This take is the one that I understand the most. I understand we have other places we could use the money (i.e the third world piss troughs and 1980s sound system). My issue with that is, this isn't going to cost a ton of money to do. You can start on an existing lot, add electric hookups, just repaint lines and make entrance/exit more RV friendly. You don't need sewer and water, I think just electric hookups would suffice. T-ing off an existent line nearby, running line underground, and building plug in hook ups for each spot wouldn't be difficult or very expensive. I've read like $100 a hook up for parts (and probably less than that in bulk). So $10,000 for 100 spots. Maybe $20-30k for dirt work and pavement in the lot. Maybe another $10k for running the lines and repainting. So $50k total. Say you want to try and recoup your investment in a year. 6 games, 100 spots, so 600 billable spots a year (just for football). $50,000/600= $83.33 per spot per game. Yeah you won't sell them out, at least not every game. Charge $150-200+ minimum a game. I would pay that, still less than a hotel/parking/uber/etc with the benefit of being able to have a sweet tailgating setup, your own place to sleep, and a place to drop a deuce while tailgating on a seat that 200 drunk people haven't pissed on.
If the University set it up where you couldn't arrive before say 5-6 pm on Friday, and had to be out by like 11 am on Sunday, it wouldn't interfere with many school functions. Hell, I'd even invite all you dickheads to my RV tailgate and I don't even know any of you (except
@Burrito Palazzo, he's not invited until we get a Colfax Culinary tour update).
) the Gold Lot and the lot down by Boulder Creek prior to the IPF construction was more RV friendly. The Gold Lot was a lot of fun when people could park on it.
