LawSchoolPony wrote:^Yep, and when I visited the Blvd. twice this season, I enjoyed walking through the Blvd. AND the empty spaces. Funny how during my trip back to Ole Miss where tailgating is FREE - it was so much harder to walk through the Grove with all those "freeloading" tents and 60k in attendance at the game....thank goodness SMU has the policies it does, all those fans and tents are indeed really bothersome.
I'm not sad that we're not tailgating this year (it was a LOT of work), just frustrated that the policies seem to limit SMU. Of course, the playing on the field this year is the biggest limit to our success right now. Here's hoping we win Saturday vs. Tulane! Go Ponies!
Here's a BIG difference.
(Math disclaimer--not for the faint of heart--Go ahead a skip to the end if you can't bear to look.)
Ole Miss's Grove is 10 acres according to their website.
Let's figure out how big SMU's Boulevard is. Assuming that the Boulevard is two city blocks long (approx. 528 feet) and we'll say it's 60 feet wide. That's 63,360 sq. ft. Sounds pretty roomy, right? Convert that to acres and that's approximately 1.45 acres. Not so roomy sounding anymore.
60,000 people across 10 acres. That's about 7.25 sq. ft. per person.
25,000 people across 1.45 acres. That's about 2.75 sq. ft. per person.
Seeing a problem here? Me too. Now realistically everyone isn't on the tiny grass median on Bishop, but I'd be willing to guess a majority are, and plus that's where most Boulevarders camp out.
(End of math section)
Ole Miss's grove several times bigger than SMU's Boulevard. I realize that SMU has tailgating areas in front of Dallas Hall and near Cox, but we all know that most of the action is on the actual Boulevard. All in all, SMU has a space problem. We don't have the viable option of having a free tailgating area, not with the limited space available. Is it right to charge several hundred dollars for a tailgating space? Maybe, maybe not. That's up to you.