Parking-lot picnics pose profit potential

When the Vikings prepare for their border battle against the Packers today, another competition will already have been brewing for hours.

Although this faceoff is a much friendlier one, the passionate football fans who gather in parking lots near the Dome are serious about showing off their best tailgating game.

Tailgating has become a $12 billion industry, with merchants offering everything from gas-powered appliances, portable satellite dish televisions and grills that attach to a truck's hitch. Consumers are snapping up such tailgating-specific products in an effort to bring all the comforts of home to the parking lot.

As many as 51 million Americans are expected to tailgate this year, and the total has been rising about 12 percent a year for at least the last five years, according to the American Tailgating Association (ATA). Tailgaters are spending lots of money, too -- about $250 per person annually, according to the association.

The growing segment is a marketer's dream. Fifty-seven percent of tailgaters make $75,000-plus annually; 82 percent are homeowners and 41 percent said that they spend more than $500 a season on food and supplies, according to a survey by the ATA.

Veteran tailgater Chris Corless points out that tailgating has become more sophisticated over the years. At the Vikings home opener, he saw people steaming lobsters and mixing drinks from the back of their trailer-turned-bar. Corless plans to order a grill that can attach to the hitch on his Jeep, so that he can cram in more supplies for game day. And as far as all the new products to recently hit the tailgating scene, the only thing that surprises Corless is that it's taken so long, because many of the products trace their inspiration to parking lots years ago.

"We talk about the missed business opportunities all the time," Corless said of his regular tailgating group. "We say, 'we should do this, we should do that.' When you see people who've made their own, you know if they put a design together, someone could manufacture and sell it."

Vikings tailgating fanatic Marcus (Mookie) Anderson prefers a grass-roots approach to tailgating. "Our own uniqueness is what makes tailgating great," he said "Businesses are trying to capture that in a bottle."

Anderson, who hasn't missed a home game since 1997 and travels to many of the out-of-town games, owns www.vikingstailgate.com, a website devoted to Vikings tailgating. He receives e-mail every week from companies that want to advertise their tailgating products on his site. The ATA also recently sent him 50 copies of its new magazine, Tailgater, to distribute in the lots.

While most tailgaters are in it just for fun, others have found a way to turn their passion into a career. Stephen Linn is the author of the "FOX Sports Tailgating Handbook," and the author/host of "The Ultimate Tailgater" series of books and shows. His website, theultimatetailgater.com, has cooking videos, recipes, tips and podcasts.

"My line is: We don't picnic in America anymore, we tailgate. It's part of our social culture and who we are now," Linn said.

This year, the Vikings have designated four new parking lots within sight of the Metrodome for tailgating.

Minneapolis "wasn't a great tailgating city before, because it was so spread out and you'd have to find a private lot here and there," Linn said. "It wasn't a spirit issue; it was a logistics issue and the new lots should help."

Linn predicts that "going green" will be the next trend in tailgating, with environmentally friendly service ware and more people using solar power for their equipment.

After realizing that tailgating had become such a large market, ShowProCo. decided to add a Tailgate/Picnic Show to run in conjunction with its annual Sports Licensing and Entertainment Marketplace expo. The second annual convention is in January and thousands of new products will be unveiled to retail buyers with the hopes of getting them on store shelves, said Ann Keush, the show director.

"Tailgating is big business. We envision that soon, maybe someone will open a chain of tailgate stores," she said.

Aimee Blanchette • 612-673-1712

Aimee Blanchette • ablanchette@startribune.com