To tailgate, check your stadium's lot rules, buy parking ahead, get there when the lots open, set up inside your space, grill, eat and hang out until it's time to go in, and leave your spot cleaner than you found it. Here's the whole playbook, step by step, with links to everything we've written on each part.
Contents
- What is tailgating?
- When do the lots open?
- What do you need to bring?
- What should you cook?
- How do you set up?
- Your first tailgate, hour by hour
- What games should you bring?
- Tailgating etiquette
- Safety and cleanup
- Where are the best places to tailgate?
What is tailgating?
Tailgating is the party in the stadium parking lot before the game. Fans park, drop the tailgate, fire up a grill and eat, drink and hang out with other fans until it's time to go in. At some schools it starts days early: LSU's exterior lots open the Thursday before a home game.
The season runs from college football's opening weekend in late August to the Super Bowl in February. Our tailgating season calendar lays it out month by month.
When do the lots open, and when does it end?
It depends on the stadium, and the differences are big:
- Arrowhead (Chiefs): lots open 4.5 hours before kickoff, and tailgating ends at kickoff.
- Lambeau Field (Packers): 4 hours before, and tailgating ends at kickoff in every stadium-controlled lot.
- Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles): generally 4.5 hours before, and tailgating ends 45 minutes after kickoff.
- Ohio State: lots open at 5 a.m., first come, first served.
Most stadiums sell parking ahead only, and many lots are cashless. Some lots also want a game ticket from everyone, even if you only came to tailgate: here's where you can tailgate without a ticket. Look up yours before you leave. Every one we cover is in our stadium guides, checked against the official pages and dated.
What do you need to bring?
The short list: a cooler, a grill your stadium allows, chairs, a canopy, one game, a small speaker, something to keep hot food hot, grill tools, cups (no glass) and your team's colors. Add trash bags, paper towels, wet wipes and sunscreen.
- Cooler: parking is rarely next to the gate. Our own Tailgate Trekker is a 20-liter backpack cooler for the walk in; Yeti, RTIC and Coleman make good ones too.
- Grill: pellet, charcoal, gas or a flattop. Pick what your stadium allows first: Ohio State bans charcoal on campus, and the Grove at Ole Miss bans grills entirely. A tabletop propane grill works almost everywhere.
- Weather: a canopy for September sun, a base layer and hand warmers for December.
The full list: tailgating essentials. Printable version: the tailgate checklist.
What should you cook?
Cook what you can make at home and finish on the grill, and eat standing up. Five that work in most lots:
- Breakfast burritos: built and frozen at home, so they ride in the cooler as ice and warm on the grill for an early kickoff.
- Beer brats: grilled, then parked in the brat tub so they hold for latecomers.
- Grilled wings: the one thing not to make ahead.
- Big-batch chili: made the night before, kept hot in one pot.
- A Bloody Mary bar: nothing to cook, so the grill stays free.
Every recipe we've written: what to cook at a tailgate.
How do you set up?
Every lot gives you a footprint, and it's smaller than you think: 9 x 6 feet behind your car at Lambeau, 9 x 12 feet on the grass at AT&T Stadium, your space plus 8 feet at Arrowhead. Measure the canopy at home.
- Park, then build out from the back of the car. Grill on the downwind side, away from the car and the crowd.
- Keep the drive lanes clear. Gear in the aisle gets you a visit from staff.
- Don't save spots. Arrowhead, AT&T and MetLife all ban it. Roll in together instead.
- Know when to pack up. If tailgating ends at kickoff, start breaking down 30 minutes before.
Your first tailgate, hour by hour
Here's a noon kickoff at Arrowhead, where the lots open 4½ hours early and tailgating ends at kickoff. Slide the clock for your stadium.
- 7:30 a.m.: the lots open. Be in line with the parking pass already bought.
- 7:45: park, and build out from the back of the car: canopy inside your space plus 8 feet, grill on the downwind side.
- 8:15: light the grill. Breakfast goes on first.
- 9:30: the second round: brats or wings.
- 10:30: food's out. This is the hour for cornhole and the crew parked next to you.
- 11:15: start packing: the grill cools, trash gets bagged, the coals go in the lot's hot coal bin.
- 11:30: walk in. Tailgating ends at kickoff.
What games should you bring?
One game everybody can play beats five nobody sets up.
- Cornhole: the classic. Run a bracket, and add a Scorezit scorekeeper so nobody argues about the score.
- Ladder ball: easy to learn and competitive fast.
- Giant Jenga: a few boards and a saw. Write a dare on each block.
- Music: a playlist and a small speaker, at a volume the next car can live with. Some stadiums ban amplified sound in the lots.
Luke from Tailgating Challenge runs through the classics:
More: 20 ways to run a better tailgate.
Tailgating etiquette
Bring something to share, ask before you pull up a chair, never touch another crew's grill, keep the trash talk friendly, and welcome the visiting fans. That's how strangers become your tailgate crew. The full list: our 12 dos and don'ts of tailgating.
Safety and cleanup
- Grill: follow your stadium's rule on distance and fuel, never leave it lit and alone, and never put a hot grill in or under a car.
- Food: cold food in the cooler, raw meat separate, and a thermometer for the meat.
- Drinks: water between beers, no glass, and a sober driver picked before the first one.
- Cleanup: trash and recycling bags, coals in the coal bins, and one last sweep before you go in.
The details, with the USDA's food rules: tailgate safety, minus the lecture.
Where are the best places to tailgate?
In the NFL, start with the lot cultures: Arrowhead, Lambeau, and Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, where Bills fans have made the lot famous. In college, it's the Grove at Ole Miss, LSU's three-day weekends and Tennessee's Vol Navy. Our college tailgate bucket list ranks the 10 to hit once, and Stadium Guides has the lot times and rules for each.
Got a lot we should cover? Tell us about it.
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