LA Galaxy Announce Tailgating Coming To StubHub Center

By Guest Writer
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Updated: January 31, 2015

(Via ‏@LAGalaxy)

As the most recent Major League Soccer season was winding down I was having a chat with Davis, one of my best friends, and we were discussing why LA Galaxy games didn’t quite seem like events.

Kobe Bryant, Jack Nicholson, the Staples Center; all of these things combine to make a Los Angeles Lakers game an event. This season, the men in purple and gold have been atrocious, and Kobe is a shadow of his former self, often doing more bad than good. Yet tickets are still fetching sale prices of $100.

So why were the Galaxy games not seeing the kind of love that other LA-based sporting events get?

It is no secret that millennials love soccer more than any other demographic. Young college kids that are well versed in EA Sports’ FIFA video game franchise are the biggest consumers of soccer in the United States.

In LA, the two sporting events that pull more of the millennial demographic than any others are UCLA and USC Football games. And those game days are events for one key reason, the thing most missing from Galaxy games according to Davis.

Yesterday morning, the Galaxy announced that StubHub Center would give a bit more leniency to one of American sports’ holiest of rituals: tailgating. With the Galaxy’s home turf being located on the campus of California State University Dominguez Hills, the team and school have always approached tailgating with an incredibly conservative mindset. For the first time, those seemingly archaic policies are being slowly repealed.

Fans that make the trek to Carson and park in an approved lot (Lots 10, 11, 12 and 13) will now be allowed to tailgate, starting three hours prior to the games.

The big takeaways from the new tailgating policies are:

Excessively loud music will be prohibited.
Roadways and aisles must be kept clear at all times.
Drinking games will not be allowed, and all alcohol consumption must be completed prior to kick-off.
An enforcement agency made up of “Tailgate Ambassadors” will be ensuring these guidelines are enforced.

It remains to be seen how the fans will take to the newfound ability to tailgate. But the key takeaway is that it’s not going to hurt. Tailgating is a great way to build a brand, and it’s a great environment for fans to talk and share their love of the team. But the restrictions placed upon the tailgaters inhibit patrons’ ability to truly get that quintessential American tailgating experience which means the Galaxy will have to maintain a championship standard in the product on the field to keep the stands full.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things LA Galaxy and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, all the time!