It’s a sunny, not-too-hot Sunday, and the smell of grilled meat pervades a parking lot on Toronto’s Lake Shore Boulevard. It is a smoke signal, a call to inaction: football!
The parking lot fills quickly with trucks and SUVs aligned in neat rows, their open tailgates and trunks pointing outward. From there spills everything: barbecues – propane and charcoal – snack platters, coleslaw, condiments, candy, coolers, tables, chairs, tents, flags, wet naps, plastic cups, paper plates, spicy chicken wings, sausages and steak.
Here are entire living rooms, makeshift kitchens and dining rooms set up in a parking lot. Cans of Bud Light or local craft cider rest on every flat surface. In some places, the parking lot is so full of stuff and people there’s no choice but to walk through what feels like someone’s home. It’s a scene as American as apple pie, except it isn’t; it’s outside Ontario Place.
Arriving at 1 p.m., I’m already late. It’s my first tailgate party; I’m learning as I go. Judging by some of the setups, people have been here for hours already. Evidently, it’s more fashionable to be early than late for one of these.
To tailgate, the ideal vehicle is a pickup truck. Ours for the weekend is a $51,000 regular-cab Ram 1500 with the 5.7-litre Hemi and 22-inch chrome wheels. It’s a “sport truck,” which seems like an oxymoron, but there it is. It’s cartoon-big and fire-engine red; we blend right in.
The Toronto Argonauts moved to BMO Field this season as part of a push to revitalize the team and attract new fans. Part of that strategy involves hosting tailgate parties before home games, as has been the tradition in U.S. football since the beginning of time. Tailgate passes are $30 a vehicle.
“Football is much more than just the game itself,” said Michael Copeland, president and chief executive of the Argos. “[Tailgating] has been a huge success – and we credit that to our fans. All we did was provide the framework and they built it into what you saw on Sunday.”
The Argos reported nearly 1,500 people and 300 vehicles at the tailgate. An impressive figure given the team was competing for attention against the Blue Jays, who were playing to a near-capacity crowd at Rogers Centre, and TIFF, which was at its star-struck height.
Mike Wylie and his son James were among the earliest to arrive. They have two of the biggest trucks in the lot. The elder Wylie drives a four-door Ram 2500 with a 6.9-litre turbo-diesel engine and custom Flowmaster exhaust.
“I have the junior,” James says. “It’s a 1500, 5.7-litre, 2014.” I note the gigantic exhaust pipes on his truck. “I’ll fire it up for you,” he says immediately. It’s loud.
This being my first tailgate, I’m unprepared both materially and mentally. My greasy barbecue and dirty patio chairs fit into the Ram’s bed with room to spare. You wouldn’t want them in the back of a car, but trucks welcome this kind of mess. But we forgot plates and our food is basic compared with the cuisine others are cooking. Juicy Jumbo hot dogs don’t impress this crowd.
Carole Cross is standing behind an impressive spread wearing a blue wig and team jersey. “We cook beef tenderloin. Go big or go home!” she says. She and her family came in from Oakville, Ont. They have every kind of blue candy from Bulk Barn. Her son, fullback Declan Cross, No. 38, is in his rookie season with the Argos and she’s incredibly proud of him.
At least we have cold drinks. The Ram has built-in coolers, cubbies on either side of the bed – RamBoxes – with drain plugs at the bottom. Filled with ice, they keep our hot dogs and ginger ale cold.
Ah yes, ginger ale, because Ontario’s alcohol regulations mean tailgaters can’t bring their own beer. Some diehards may find ways around this, smuggling it in despite thorough vehicle searches. But beer is reasonable: $4 a can from official trolleys.
This happy meeting of parking and beer and sports could’ve only originated in convenience-oriented America. Should you drink too much, you can leave your car in the tailgate lot until noon the next day.
Tailgating has been around for more than a century, according to a paper by professor Tim Delaney published in the the New York Sociologist.
A two-year study of U.S. Midwestern tailgaters in a collegiate setting – by John Sherry and Tanya Bradford, professors of marketing at Notre Dame – liken tailgating to ancient Greek and Roman harvest festivals.
A marching band, the Argonotes, and an excellent drumline, 416 Beats, make their separate ways through the appreciative crowd.
Jim Cooper is at the tailgate with his daughter, who’s concentrating on her hamburger.
“I was a long-snapping specialist, a utility Canadian,” he says. He played in the Canadian Football League for three seasons, mostly with Edmonton, ending his career as an Argo in 2000. “It was a dream come true.
“Tailgates bring people together. It gives you a place to come and celebrate Canadian football,” Cooper said. “Participating in the celebration, that’s what tailgating is. People can share their love of the game and break some bread. The more this grows, the more people are going to be in [BMO Field] and the more it becomes a place to be.”
Tailgating is a family event. “No, it never gets too rowdy,” Toronto police Constable Mike Harris says. He and a few other officers are patrolling the area, mostly chatting. “I’ve never seen any problems here at all.”
James Wylie, with the loud truck, has a theory: “This is the oldest-running league, next to lacrosse, in Canada. … The CFL, Argos, it’s more than just a game; it’s a part of being Canadian.”
As Sherry told the Notre Dame News: “Tailgating, for the fans, is literally helping to create Notre Dame, or Michigan, or USC.” Or, in this case, recreate the Argos.
This will be music to the ears of Copeland and the rest of the new Argos ownership.
In hindsight, I’d do some things differently for my next tailgate. The HEMI engine was overkill, obviously. RamBoxes are a tailgate must-have. And a truck with a crew cab is better, because this is a more-the-merrier kind of event.
