A Final Four first: Houston to bring tailgating to basketball with Barbecue Town
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Tailgating and college basketball have never really gone together. But maybe that's just because the Final Four hasn't been in Houston for 40 years.
With college basketball's biggest event set to make a big Bayou City splash, CultureMap has learned that there will be officially endorsed tailgating at the Final Four for the first time.
College football no longer gets to have all the fun, pageantry and parking lot hanging out. Final Four ticket holders will be encouraged to show up to both the April 2 national semifinal games and the April 4 championship game early to partake in some of the fun that in many ways really helped build Reliant Stadium's reputation.
Tailgating at Houston Texans games at Reliant became such a hit that Forbes named Houston one of the Top 10 tailgating towns in America — and it eventually became so popular that the Texans decided they needed to place restrictions on the practice during the 2010 season to keep it under control.
The Final Four tailgating will not fit the traditional image of an RV pulling up in a lot and a crew of friends setting up a portable grill to cook up homemade takes. Instead, Barbecue Town will be a special area in the Reliant parking lots where barbecue is available for purchase and a not-quite-impromptu party-like scene with music is set up.
The thinking behind that decision is that a large majority of the Final Four-ticket holders will be coming in from out of town and will not be able to lug tailgating equipment to the game, NCAA and Houston Local Organizing Committee officials told CultureMap.
So the barbecue will be cooked by professionals. The plan is to create an almost festival-like pregame atmosphere, the type of thing that's never really been associated with the Final Four before.
There is a very practical aspect to that goal as well. A successful parking lot party could mean less roads around Reliant turn into virtual parking lots.
"We want to make sure people get to the games early to prevent any major traffic issues," said Doug Hall, vice president of game, facility and LOC management for the 2011 Houston Final Four Local Organizing Committee. "So that's part of it. But the NCAA and Local Organizing Committee are also committed to making this a Houston Final Four. We really want the local flavor and barbecue just seemed like a natural.
"Because it's Houston. If you're from out of town and you're coming into Houston, what's one of the things you want to try?"
Don't expect to be noshing on Goode Company Barbeque or another iconic H-Town institution though. While the vendors for Barbecue Town have not been finalized yet, Hall says they are expected to be much less well-known and distinctive than the four restaurants that won their way into serving food at the Big Dance Concert Series in Discovery Green (Original Ninfa's on Navigation, Max's Wine Dive, the Tasting Room and the House of Blues).
Barbecue Town fits into the NCAA's vision of building up the events around the Final Four and making it more of a happening rather than just the three biggest games of every college basketball season. The Final Four may never morph into the Super Bowl where a good chunk of people fly in for a week of partying and then fly out right before kickoff (and the NCAA probably wouldn't even want it to), but college basketball's governing body still sees room for growth.
"The Final Four seems to get bigger every year," NCAA's associate director for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship David Worlock said during a Houston visit. "Just when you start to think there can't possibly be any more interest than there already is, a new milestone or record is set."
Sometimes it's even something as simple as barbecue. What was one thing college basketball's biggest event was missing? Tailgating?
Houston will take care of that.
"It's full speed ahead on Barbecue Town," Hall said.
Fire up the commercial grill.
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