Tailgating at University of Missouri

The ManEater is reporting that Reactor Field will be closed for tailgating and parking for the entire football season. This is after going last season to a schedule where they opened the field a couple hours before the game. I am not entirely sure what had prompted this closure. I remember the days when I was a student and Reactor was actually a field unlike its current state of being a gravel parking lot. It was the best time. I remember having kegs and eggs for the early morning games and tailgating all day for the late games. Throwing around the football and just enjoying life. I do also remember the hoosiers who would do donuts with their big trucks in this same field when it rained since it became a big mud pit. I thought this small group of individuals were the ones responsible for causing the small window of being open but evidentially not because they haven’t been able to do that for years. I remember reading a couple years ago that MU wanted the limited window of openness to curb people’s drinking and try to prevent people from just tailgating and not going to the actual game. This is a ridiculous idea to me. There is no way you are going to stop that. People will move from one spot to another. Another thing that bothers me is that they allow this at all the big money “donor” parking lots around the stadium but this never gets any attention. The other thing that bothers me is that I have not seen any out of control behavior in the past couple years that we have tailgated on Reactor. It actually has been pretty low key and tame. The other thing that just blows my mind is that one alternative is parking along Providence where speeding cars are flying by; just waiting for someone to get hit by a car. It also seems like it is a giant waste to be letting a big parking lot somewhat close to the stadium to stay closed when the school was making $15 a car. I guess it is only my tax dollars paying for that school.