Why have tailgate parties not spread to the UK?

Well the lack of large parking lots makes sense. That and that second picture looks like misery to me....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28775062

The charitable side of me wants to agree that, yes, it's probably all to do with the parking shortage.

My inner cynic, however, says that its because:

• UK sausages & burgers are breadcrumb-filled s**t
• Which is just as well, because the locally-available charcoal is s**t, too, making portable barbecuing extremely frustrating, if not damned-near impossible
• and even if you could get past all that, a good tailgate party requires people who are actually willing to publicly display emotions like enthusiasm, excitement and joy.

My inner cynic, however....

Hahahaha!  Good one!   

UK sausages & burgers are breadcrumb-filled s**t

You know on the sausage issue...I've grown to like them. I can descend on a pan of toad-in-the-hole like Cossacks on a retreating French army.

I get excited by bangers and mash.

A midnight tip toe down to the refrigerator when there are some cold sausages in there...."Honey are you down there eating the leftover sausages?"

"Nooo, I thought I heard something."

A few more things on sausages:

I miss those little breakfast link sausages back in the US. I didn't eat them that much back there but they pop into my mind a lot now.

When my in-laws lived in New Orleans we would visit and this one place had a sausage sandwich (called a 'poor boy' apparently) and it was startlingly good.

There is a little Charcuterie here in Cambridge and I stop and look in the window at the display - I would like to dive in there amongst the meats and hams and sausages like the mayor in Chocolat - like a porpoise in a school of anchovy - surfacing and diving back in. People would come by and see my feet poking out the top of the pile

Most stadiums are enclosed by housing, until the newer out of town ones started being built. And the tradition here is pre-match drinks in a pub.
Who wants to stand out in the rain with a can of beer when you can be in the pub?

But I read this article a few days ago and objected to the notion that it should spread here? Why should it?

and even if you could get past all that, a good tailgate party requires people who are actually willing to publicly display emotions like enthusiasm, excitement and joy.

I take it you don't go to football matches much then?  You'll get all this and more.
Personally my objection to the idea of tailgate parties is why on earth would I want to stand outside in the cold and rain eating burnt meat from the back of someones car, when I could be warm and having a good time in the pub instead? It makes no sense!
Actually I've been to tailgate parties in the US and really enjoyed it - it's always good to try something different. Which  is the real reason why they haven't spread to the UK (and why should they?) - people do different things in different countries.

a good tailgate party requires people who are actually willing to publicly display emotions like enthusiasm, excitement and joy.[/li][/list]

I take it you don't go to football matches much then?  You'll get all this and more.

Haha!  I've been to a few football matches in the UK; mostly lower division teams like Watford, Leyton Orient, and Sheffield United.  While I can confirm public displays of enthusiasm, excitement, and joy, I can also confirm public displays of aggression, menace, and intimidation.  I presume this was the "and more" to which chadders1966 was referring.   

Personally my objection to the idea of tailgate parties is why on earth would I want to stand outside in the cold and rain eating burnt meat from the back of someones car

You wouldn't.  And unfortunately, if you tried to tailgate in the UK, that's exactly what would happen.  Because they'd be doing it wrong.

The wrong meat, the wrong charcoal, the wrong equipment, the wrong space, and also, it occurred to me this morning, no Red Solo Cups.  And probably the wrong beer, too.

As for attitudes, I stand by my original comment.  People might get excited and enthused and overjoyed about the game itself, or about the prospect of battering the other fans before/during/after, but I don't think it's natural for people here to simply enjoy the day out itself, and the company of crowds of strangers.  Y'all barely make eye contact in public, if you can help it.  You simply couldn't ever replicate the atmosphere.

And that's ok.  As you say, people in different countries do different things.

You know on the sausage issue...I've grown to like them. I can descend on a pan of toad-in-the-hole like Cossacks on a retreating French army.

See, the thing is, you never lived in Wisconsin.  We take sausages seriously, and the bread goes around, not in. 

I can't even being to imagine how a Banger would fare in the Sausage Race: Record Setting Klement's Sausage Race at Miller Park. 

You wouldn't.  And unfortunately, if you tried to tailgate in the UK, that's exactly what would happen.  Because they'd be doing it wrong.

The wrong meat, the wrong charcoal, the wrong equipment, the wrong space, and also, it occurred to me this morning, no Red Solo Cups.  And probably the wrong beer, too.

As for attitudes, I stand by my original comment.  People might get excited and enthused and overjoyed about the game itself, or about the prospect of battering the other fans before/during/after, but I don't think it's natural for people here to simply enjoy the day out itself, and the company of crowds of strangers.  Y'all barely make eye contact in public, if you can help it.  You simply couldn't ever replicate the atmosphere.

And that's ok.  As you say, people in different countries do different things.

I think you missed the humour intended in my post. In reality people wouldn't do any of those things "wrong" because they wouldn't have the slighest interest in doing it in the first place.
Same as in the US, the different parts of the UK vary in interactions etc. What you described there sounds very much like New York to me. Then again it could be London. If it's like that where you live that must be odd, but please don't generalise. It certainly isn't where I live and many other parts of the country I know well.

But I read this article a few days ago and objected to the notion that it should spread here? Why should it?

Exactly. Why does every place have to be like every other place? Why on earth should American traditions be adopted by other countries? And why do these sorts of posts always degenerate into "X country is wrong, and they will never understand Y. Country Z does this random thing so much better and is therefore superior". The longer I live in the UK the more sick to effing death I get of hearing expats bang on about how much they wish that Taco Bell/tailgate parties/Velveeta/insert American cr*p here would come to the UK. Because they want to live in a foreign country yet have nothing be foreign, apparently. It really winds me up.

Sorry, that rant came out of nowhere.

(BTW, not directed at you, woadgrrl, or indeed anyone. Just a generalised rant)

Oh, and sonofasailor, have you been working on your similes? They're quite extraordinary.

You know on the sausage issue...I've grown to like them. I can descend on a pan of toad-in-the-hole like Cossacks on a retreating French army.

I get excited by bangers and mash.

A midnight tip toe down to the refrigerator when there are some cold sausages in there...."Honey are you down there eating the leftover sausages?"

"Nooo, I thought I heard something."

I clicked on this link because your posts usually make me laugh.  I was not disappointed.

I don't know why people go to sporting events in the first place.... Yawn........   

Exactly. Why does every place have to be like every other place? Why on earth should American traditions be adopted by other countries? And why do these sorts of posts always degenerate into "X country is wrong, and they will never understand Y. Country Z does this random thing so much better and is therefore superior". The longer I live in the UK the more sick to effing death I get of hearing expats bang on about how much they wish that Taco Bell/tailgate parties/Velveeta/insert American cr*p here would come to the UK. Because they want to live in a foreign country yet have nothing be foreign, apparently. It really winds me up.

Sorry, that rant came out of nowhere.

(BTW, not directed at you, woadgrrl, or indeed anyone. Just a generalised rant)

Oh, and sonofasailor, have you been working on your similes? They're quite extraordinary.

THIS!!!! x1000 Thank you!!!!