April 29 – FIFA has backed down to allow tailgating during the World Cup after all.
The Boston host committee confirmed the reversal on Monday, after FIFA’s initial position was that no tailgating would be permitted at any of the 104 matches across the United States, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19.
Boston will host six group-stage games and a quarter-final on 9 July will be played in Foxborough, home of the New England Patriots.
Tailgating is one of the genuinely distinctive parts of American sports culture. Fans arrive hours before kickoff, set up in the parking lot, eat, drink, share, and build the day. Telling those fans they could not do that at the biggest tournament their country has ever hosted was an early sign of how badly FIFA was reading the room.
The committee said the change “conforms with local policies that allow tailgating like any other event hosted at the stadium, as there are no venue restrictions or local public safety restrictions in place that would prohibit it.”
In other words, it was always allowed. FIFA just decided otherwise, then decided again.
The fan-friendly headline does not survive scrutiny. Parking spaces will be cut from the usual 20,000 for Patriots games down to around 5,000 for the World Cup. The Metro Boston Transit Authority has set round-trip train fares from Boston to Foxborough at $80, four times the price charged for Patriots and Revolution matches, while the express bus option costs $95.
So fans can tailgate. They just have to find one of 5,000 parking spots, or pay $80 to get there by train, or $95 by bus.
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