He Built a Tailgate Business from Cornhole Boards to 10,000 Fans | John Mikulec

He started making cornhole boards in his garage at 16. Today his company runs more tailgate events than anyone else on Earth — 350 planned for the next year across 15+ NFL cities, 9 college markets, and every major soccer venue hosting World Cup matches in 2026.

John Mikulec, founder of Gameday Hospitality, is the rare operator who's scaled a passion into a genuine industry force without losing the core of what makes a tailgate great. He joins Luke for the longest episode in TGC podcast history to tell the full story — from the early days to the Super Bowl, from Buffalo to Ann Arbor, and everywhere in between.

What we cover: How Gameday Hospitality grew from cornhole boards to 350 events a year · 13 NFL cities, 9 colleges, and World Cup 2026 goal zones · What it takes to operate tailgates in multiple markets simultaneously · The business of premium hospitality vs traditional tailgating · Bills Mafia culture and what makes Buffalo different · Lessons from nearly a decade in the tailgate industry

Transcript

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Intro

Luke 0:00

All right, welcome back to the Tailgate Connect podcast. I'm your host, Luke Lorick with Tailgate and Challenge. I love all things tailgating. In today's episode, we talked to John with Game Day Hospitality, who started at 16 years of age making cornhole boards in his garage, to now becoming one of the tailgating giants in the industry with hosting hundreds of tailgating events across the country every single year. Stay tuned for that and how we can get John to jump through a table like Bill's Mafia. Let's listen now.

Music 0:49

Let's have a ball across the states from college to NFL.

Meet John — Gameday Hospitality overview

Luke 1:01

All right, welcome back to the Tailgate Connect podcast. We got John with Game Day Hospitality checking with us this evening. John, how you doing, sir? Good. How are you? And I'm doing good, doing good. Like I met John. I met you, what, probably what, it was Houston for the In person.

Tornado day in Houston — how Luke and John met

John 1:21

In person. Miserable, like tornado-ridden day of Michigan, Washington. But I know we've known each other for for a while off and on on the internet, back in even some like the tailgate giant days and things. I think it's been a little while. So I've been in this world now for who knows, f going on 15 years. So I think we're we're all kind of been in that world.

Luke 1:40

No doubt. No doubt. And so like for those that don't know John, like he is huge in the tailgating scene, game day hospitality. John, like how many different like tailgate locations is your company like hosting currently?

250 events this year — 13 NFL cities, 5 colleges

John 1:56

So this year's about this year's been about 250 events. So we've done 13 NFL Cities, five colleges. Next year we're we're pushing 350-ish events in the planning works. We're adding some other places, uh, certain soccer tournaments coming to North America. So there's there's some other stuff we're gonna do that's kind of high-end premium hospitality more than tailgating, but uh lots of stuff in the works, uh core markets, but we continue to try to find and fill these holes for people to have hassle-free tailgating in these markets and a place to just show up to, buy a ticket, have a good time, and everything's taken care of and go into the game. So uh started out nine and a half years ago in 2016 with game day, had tailgate giant and other stuff in the space since 2011 before that, but uh 2016 is when game day started. Now we're going on our tenth year, coming up in a little bit. So lots of cool things. I mean, not too many places in America we haven't done something, or um, there's there's very few blind spots, especially in the NFL, where we've never done anything or don't plan on doing something. So um yeah, and I think pretty much next year nobody will host more tailgate events than us on Earth. I don't think there's another company doing 350 tailgate slash pregame

Who are the competitors? The tailgate landscape

John 3:06

events next year.

Luke 3:06

So with that with that being said, who would you say like is your biggest competitor out there right now?

John 3:13

Um I mean, obviously on a market by market basis, we have certain competitors, certain places where there's there's competition. Uh similar space, I guess like maybe bullseye, like the but they partner with these teams and they have I think they're down to nine teams. They went from twelve to nine, so they've subtracted the last year or two. So um they do the s they do the Super Bowl. Obviously, they have the massive Super Bowl uh players tailgate, but I I would say probably it's it's more on a case-by-case basis on some of these markets, some of these places, and there's a lot of places where we're going up against like the official on location or something like that, but a lot of that stuff's not what we do. And by the time that these teams pay all the different layers that it takes to do something officially, they they're they're in a whole nother stratosphere that's not even a tailgate event anymore, and people can't afford it. So um I I don't know anybody that's looking at doing like 15 NFL teams, eight, eight, nine colleges next year, I don't think.

Nobody hosting more than Gameday next year

Luke 4:03

Yeah, no, I I I don't either, which is another reason reason why I I love you and respect all the things you're doing out there because you're bringing that easy button tailgatey for so many people, right? They can easily go to so many different events with it. Now, John, I know you're a younger guy than I am. And based on some of the timeline, like how old were you when you got like some of this tailgate stuff?

Started at 16 building cornhole boards

John 4:23

I started Game Day at 21. I started my first company with 16, building cornhole boards, and then that took off and eventually turned into tailgate giant. So yeah, I started 16 in my parents' garage building cornhole boards. That turned into that company eventually turned into tailgate giant where we were retailing everything for tailgating. Started Mangave Giant because it was the similar kind of space. And then yeah, 2016, I was 21, going on 22, kept getting asked to um host all these tailgate events or sponsor these tailgate events. I'm like, I can do this so much better um than what's out there at the time. And um, yeah, we started game day from there and started out with Buffalo and Carolina and just kind of built up, built up. And now we're obviously going after whatever markets we possibly can, but we have a lot of like friends and certain partners and stuff we work with, places where we won't touch, but there's where there's some opportunities, we're going after it, or if there's some ways to partner and build it in. Uh, I mean, we're not producing 100% of our events now. We have a lot of different partners on certain places and markets that don't really make sense to go at it alone. But uh yeah, it's been a it's been a road for over the last nine and a half years. So um oh it's crazy. I mean, we just thought we were gonna create hassle-free tailgating in a couple places, starting Buffalo, start in Carolina, and now we're some of these places, Buffalo where we host 2,000 to 2,500 people, we're an experiential marketing company. Essentially, we work with a lot of these brands and and and get them close to these NFL teams without having to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes for the NFL teams. So in a market like Buffalo, where they're building a new stadium, and it used to be there's $250,000, $300,000 sponsorships with the team, is now starting at $650,000 next year. So there's these brands that are getting pushed out, and we can, with our millions of impressions and just the Buffalo market and the thousands of people on site and the 30,000 people that walk by and the the opportunities to to market, we've turned into basically a company where we offer three different things. It's the hassle free tail, getting the come buy a ticket, come in. It's the corporate group, private group, away group hospitality where we can host thousands of people, we can host corporate groups, and then it's this experiential marketing arm where brands want to be a part of this. They want to like feel like they're Bill's mafia without paying the bills or feel like they're in the stealer's market and reaching that audience without it. So some markets we work with team or brands that work with the team, some markets we work with the opposite, like and some we do both. So it's like it's just turned into a way for people to reach that audience. And if you're a brand trying to get like an alcohol brand, trying to get product ellips, like there's no better setting than 2,000 people drinking as many of that drink as they want to. Versus like sampling quarter-ound samples at a festival, being like, try my seltzer. And it's like once they try it, they're like cool, and they throw it away and they move on. Like this, you can keep going back to the bar and getting another one. And people get used to that transactional level. So um, yeah, we've kind of built a pretty unique company now and do all sorts of different corporate hospitality production. We do a lot of these away group productions. Like this year, we handled Jimmy's Seafood's tailgoat on the road, like the Raven's tailgates we did at Buffalo, we did at Kansas City, we did at Miami, where now some of these other places that we used to kind of consider competitors or people that do these events, we now work with because we're in so many cities that we can handle their whole away schedule if we need to, whether it's in our cities or the places we've we've done before. And we're on site at Hard Rock Stadium now, something that nobody had been able to touch, where we're partners with Hard Rock Stadium, able to do some things there. We're doing the Orange Bowl with them coming up. So we've there's been some of these places where it's like no everybody's like, you cannot do this. Well there's nothing there's no way to do Hard Rock Stadium or do Miami. There's no private property, there's no this. And like I love that. I take that as a challenge, and I'm like, I'm gonna go dig in there and figure out how we're gonna get make that happen. So um yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. There's a couple places now where it's like, okay, like we're told we can't go do this or can't do the go do that, and we're we're trying to make them happen. And so yeah, it's been it's been a grind. I mean, COVID in the middle, where it's like you went back to kind of our basics, but now we kind of built back up to where it was gonna be. So um excited for what's gonna come next year. We have a lot of surprises in store, a lot of big things we're gonna be doing, a lot more opportunities. And um, now we're a spot where if you're uh let's just say Bush's baked beans or like a company where you're like, I want to reach 12 NFL teams. If you go talk to 12 NFL teams and you're like, I want to do one event in each city and all this stuff, the logistics involved, the cost involved, whereas you can come to like us and be like, okay, we'll activate you in one game in each city, plus we can do branding all year, plus we can email hundreds of thousands of people, plus we can do this, all with one sales rep, all with one contact that handles your reach throughout the whole with throughout all these cities. So that's kind of kind of been the unique way of monetizing. And these are events aren't cheap to produce. It's not cheap to get parking lots near stadiums. It's not cheap to staff these things. So um anyway we can still make it fan-friendly, pricing and affordable while the money being from brands or whatever it takes to produce these high and try to make the events as big as best, I mean the best events we could possibly can. Like Buffalo, we have live bands almost every almost every game. We've invested a lot back into these events.

Bills fan born in Buffalo, lives in Charlotte

Luke 9:26

No doubt, no doubt. Uh again, I know I still got to get to Buffalo personally, and I also want to come back to that here in just a moment to talk some more about Buffalo specifically. But I feel like I want I want to rewind back to the younger 16-year-old John. Cornhole boards. Like, did where did that where did that come from? Did you have like, did you grow up just playing cornhole, love and tailgating it, or did you just see something like, I can capitalize on this? Like, like, where did that, I guess, love of everything that you're doing come from?

Entrepreneur origin story

John 9:55

Yeah, so I think I've always knew I was gonna be some sort of entrepreneur or own some sort of business. Always wanted to be an architect growing up, always wanted to design stadiums, always wanted to be the one to design stadiums and arenas and big projects and um was actually doing construction over the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school for my construction teacher. He had like a construction company over the summer, and we were renovating my the defensive backs coach from my high school's kitchen. We're renovating the kitchen, like redoing some stuff. And he, that coach comes up to me and goes, Hey, you're handy. Like, I need a cornhole set. Like, can you help me build one or whatever? He went on vacation for a week. I go back, figure out how to do it. I'm like, Oh, I made you a cornhole set. He's like, I don't know, I found one at a flea market, I don't need one anymore. But it just like clicked, like that was easy. Like, why don't I just do this? And so just started making them off and on. And next thing you know, it was 2011. So cornhole was at like its peak of blowing up. And next thing you know, I graduated high school with like 12 part-time employees, a warehouse, all this stuff, like well, 18. And like we were just manufacturing thousands and thousands of sets of cornhole boards a year. And basically, with like friends from high school in their free time, like we do like build days, like we'd do two or three days of building, stack cornhole boards to the ceiling, get all the dust up, and then go into like paint mode for 11 out of 14 days, and then go like we had a full production line going, and uh, we're starting to get some corporate orders and things where we had like the local caterpillar equipment dealer was like, Hey, we're sick of giving hats out when somebody buys an excavator for 400 grand. Can we like can we give like custom cornhole boards and things like that? So we had like Albin cat cornhole boards and all the stuff, and they were selling them in their stores, and like we were starting to find these these corporate reaches, corporate brands that wanted to have cornhole boards and things, and that kind of took off, ended up selling that out um to like our competitor, and started the retail side. So we were just online retail, tailgate giant.com, had all the tense chairs, games, tables, all that stuff, and a lot of the stuff you've showcased on your thing. I mean, I think we've both been sent everything possible to throw this at this, throw this new object at this hole. Like there was a stretch there where I had a closet full of stuff in my warehouse that was just the new version of throwing something at something. Like there's that stretch there where everybody's like, I have the next big cornhole. And it's like, no, you don't. Like, like some of the things work, but like there's only so many throw this at that that works. That work. Unfortunately, in this space, and I know you know it, like there's you either have to come up with something really creative that everybody loves, or something that will break every year that Walmart will buy because they want people buying it every single year. Like if you can come up with something that like will break will just last a season and then breaks in in the offseason, and then Walmart can sell another one the next year, you're gonna make a lot of money. But like if there's not a buyback rate, unfortunately, we built cornhole boards too well that there's still cornhole boards from 2011, 2012 we built, they're probably still out there. Like it's not the wild sports and some of these stuff that like just breaks every year. So, like there's not a ton of return customers in the really good quality cornhole world. Whereas if you can go sell them other things and um so kind of got out of that space during COVID. Like I had both for a while, but that was it, it was just tough. Now everybody started expecting Amazon delivery. Like, why is my thing not here four hours later? And it's like, you sorry, you bought a pool table on Mankave Giant, it takes four to six weeks to build. Like, like, like you're buying stuff that like is no different than ordering custom furniture or furniture where it takes a few weeks or a month to come in for some of these Mankave things or some of the custom stuff. So everybody just got to an expectation of why is this not coming tomorrow? And like it's so hard to compete with that. And Amazon will sell you the same thing on razor thin margins and make one percent to get it to you faster, whereas like uh mom and pop can't operate on that level. So um, and game day was became the passion, like the actual running of these events and the energy around it and everything. Like there's there's nothing like the the energy of a popping up at 6 a.m. Oh yeah on a like Bill's game day or whatever, where it's just like it's game day, like you have all the adrenaline, there's nothing that's gonna stop you from waking up and like going and managing these events. And we're not at a point where we have the team and the staff around us where it's a production and I'm more shaking hands, kissing babies at a lot of these events, and make like unless something majorly goes wrong, thank God. Like, so it's just the people don't realize how much work goes into hosting these things. And they're like, oh, you just get to go fly around, go party and go to sporting events. And it's like there's a lot more that goes into this than that, and um you don't realize how much work happens nine months in advance and all these things and all the prep and all the permitting and all the stuff. And like we have people that are like, like this weekend we have Bills Browns. You can't serve alcohol in Ohio if you have a permit until 10 a.m. But like we have a competitor there that's selling a tailgate at like 8 a.m. because they don't care about permitting. And it's like people are like, why is yours starting later? And it's like, because we have to follow the law because we're too big. Like, like, like other people can get away with stuff when like if we use the wrong Pantone color on a logo because it's too close to the Peach Bowl logo, we're getting seasons assists. Meanwhile, like we have competition who's like, uh I don't know, Georgia versus Alabama SEC championship on CBS with all the logos, and it's like we use the wrong Pantone color, we get in trouble. So there's a s there's there's growing pains when you get too big where everybody's eyeballs are on you and like you have to do everything the right way, but you you get a little frustrated sometimes. You're like, why does this person get to get away with serving two hours early on a Sunday when it's illegal? Like it's like there's those frustrations, but um yeah, there's there's nothing like this business, and never thought I was gonna be in this space. I guess if going back to what you were saying of how it was this always your passion, like I thought I was gonna be designing stadiums, and an architect instead were just making probably a lot more money outside the stadium than what uh an architect for one of the two companies that make stadiums makes, but like still around it and still get to experience designing and building out these venues and experiences and stuff, and get to see like the new Bill Stadium go up. Exactly. Like and get to see like the new Bill Stadium go up and some of these new stadiums go up while you're in the process, and it opens up a lot of doors when you start to build these relationships with these teams and things like that, and you get to go behind the scenes and see how these venues work and and lucky enough to go on fields and things like that, and then get to see the behind the scenes of how the sports work, sport world sports world works.

Bills fan background and AFC Championship plans

Luke 16:02

And uh to me that that's amazing. But but to your point a minute ago, too, it's like all the hard work that goes into the point where you're able to have those relationships and do some of that stuff. It didn't just happen overnight, right? It's you know, 16-year-old John starting to do cornhole boards and transitioning to other stuff and then finding the uh the sweet spot with everything to continue that tailgating journey with it. So did you did you grow up? I know obviously you're really big into the Buffalo Bills now and have one of the best tailgates, if not the best tailgate in Buffalo. Like, did you grow up as a Bills fan or like who are you a fan

Book Buffalo flights AND a KC flight just in case

Luke 16:34

of growing up?

John 16:34

I'm a Bills fan. I'm a Bills fan. I was born in Buffalo. I live in Charlotte now, but uh born in Buffalo, my whole family's from Buffalo. So diehard Bills fan, that's our baby. Like that's the the sweet spot with the markets. Um we have other places, like Pittsburgh's our second biggest market now. We've been in Carolina, where unfortunately you get to the point where you're you have to balance your fandom with the business, and we have like employees and benefit and things to continue. And like we uh we have Patriots and Chiefs tailgates and stuff now where you're as like a Bills fan, you're like, ugh, but like as like a businessman, you're like, we have to be in these places, you have to be prepared. So um we uh weirdly enough have the whole A AFC East now because we do the Dolphins, we do the Jets, so we do Pittsburgh or we do um New England with so like we have all three of the Bills rivals now where we do tailgates. So you just get to the point where the the business side of it is is is is more important. I mean, we'll make more money if the Bills make the Super Bowl than any other team. So like the business aligns with the fandom, thank God. But like um it's it's tough as a deep down Bills fan, like every year having except for this year having to go to the Super Bowl and like deal with up it's the Chiefs again or this or that. So this year should be fun. We should get some new blood in there, hopefully. And I'm starting to like think about some of these matchups, and like if we have like a Bills versus Packers or a Bills versus Bears or some of these like fun, like haven't been in the Super Bowl in a while, like fun fan bases, like there's a lot of opportunities like for that, but this is probably the craziest playoff situation we've already we've ever had mid-December. Oh, I mean you started game day.

Super Bowl in Santa Clara speculation

Luke 18:09

And I love it. Uh uh as again, as a 49ers fan, I'm like, Bill, Niners would be fine with me too. Like, uh with I don't know if the Niners.

John 18:15

They might continue the trend of the home team hosting the Super Bowl. Um, that's possible. Ability, it's happened a couple times the last couple of years with with Tampa doing it and with LA doing it. So it's not out of the question. Um yeah, the Niners will look good. I mean, the Niners could be in it, the Niners could be out. Like there, there's the Bears are the two seed right now. They could be out. Like, we don't have as much on the NFC side right now. We have we we do Denver with a partnership, we do Patriots, we do Steelers, we do Bills on the AFC side. So we have a lot of lot of stuff going on on the AFC side, but like looking back to last year, first week of December, I had my flights for the playoffs booked because it was like, okay, the Bills are either the two or the one.

Book Buffalo + KC — AFC championship strategy

Luke 18:58

Right.

John 18:58

Book all the Buffalo flights and then a KFC or KC flight just in case for the AFC Championship. And like that's what it was. Like right now, it's like this year, you could very realistically have the five, six, and seven seeds win their games. And the five seed could host a div or a divisional round game in the round two. You could have a divisional team that hosts the divisional round in the AFC championship as a divisional team, like or as a wildcard team. So like it's like the the Texans could be the seven seed, and they might be the most dangerous defense on the AFC side and might be able to go into New England and beat New England, and then now everything just goes wild. And that are the Steelers or the Ravens, whoever wins that division, they're probably the worst team in the playoffs on the AFC side. So you have a lot of these top teams that are gonna have home playoff games that might not be the best teams. And you have the Patriots who have played opponents that are like a batting 300. Like their schedule is like three and ten or whatever right now. So it's like on average. So they played like every worst team in the league, and they're gonna be a one or a two seed. So there's a lot of craziness going on. You could have the Lions, who are a damn good team, not even make the playoffs. Yeah. One of these NFC West teams might not make the playoffs, one of these NFC North teams might not make the playoffs. So there's just a lot of craziness going on, and who knows? We'll we'll see how it kind of whittles down, but a lot of new blood there. But then there's these teams like the Niners and the Rams and things that have been in multiple Super Bowls the last 10 years that are that are sitting there. And uh the AFC's kind of wide open with it being the first one without Brady, Mahomes, or Manning in the United States. I know that it's 90s.

Denver vs Jacksonville game weekend

Luke 20:36

It's so weird. Like I'm going uh T I'm going I'm going to Denver uh game this weekend, right? Doing the Togate and everything up there with it.

John 20:43

It's gonna be a great game with Jacksonville. The Jacksonville versus Denver. It's gonna be are the Jaguars for real.

Luke 20:49

I guess I guess we're gonna find I mean, some people still say are the Broncos for real with I mean, I feel like they've won, what, 11 in a row? So I mean they feel pretty, pretty real um with it as much as anything can this season in a very strange NFL season with that. But let me let let's if we shift back over to like the tailgating aspect, like with Game Day Hospitality, if somebody were to uh pop over to Tailgate Connect, get a ticket for you know, one of the different venues you all host out there, what can they expect? What does that look like?

Hassle-free tailgating — the core model

John 21:20

Yeah, it obviously varies a little bit different market by market, but we're just trying to create the best, like hassle-free tailgate experience, show up all the food, drinks, everything taken care of. Um certain places, like it's even crazier, like the the the top end with Buffalo, where we have the shipping container bars and the live wings on site and the the live bands and things like that. But we try to like create that experience everywhere else. It takes a little bit of time to catch up. But you expect somewhere in that like 300 to a thousand person range for most markets and and and everything kind of taken care of. We have some sort of option for private group tents, things like that. If you want to have your space kind of like re renting a cabana at a pool in Vegas or whatever, where it's like, here's my space within the bigger event. We do a lot of the private group tents, but not just like the Revel XP type, like rent a tent and bring all your own stuff still, like for food and drinks. Like everything's taken care of. And uh yeah, I mean we we we've built up hassle free tailgating in a lot of different places and uh um all your food and drinks is included everywhere except for in New Jersey. We have some crazy laws at MetLife. So New Jersey, it's all cash bar, but we have like reasonable prices for the the food and or for the drinks, all your food and everything's included. It's just New York's New Jersey state law there. So you're a lot cheaper than a Manhattan bar where you're gonna go buy $25 cocktails, I promise you that. But um everywhere else we're able to be do the all-inclusive alcohol, things like that. But like I said, state by state laws are all crazy and you learn the hard way.

Open bar laws in New Jersey — the permit issue

John 22:43

Right, dude.

Luke 22:43

I I'm not even familiar with that. Like you're telling me something I was like, I had no idea, right? And again, going back to like some of the stuff you have to navigate and learn.

John 22:50

Yeah, so New Jersey, if you have an alcohol permit, you're not allowed to do an open bar if it's promoted to the public. So like if you have a wedding, you can have a closed, like if you have a closed list event, a corporate event, things like that, where it's but once you sell a ticket to the public, it's illegal in the state of New Jersey to have an open bar. You can't even pre-sell a single drink. Like we can't include one drink ticket by law. Like there's just crazy state-by-state play things you learn. Um some of these places, like you you can't serve alcohol till X time on certain days. And like we don't do we do the SEC Championship, we do the Peach Bowl, we do all this stuff in in Georgia, in Atlanta, but we don't do the Falcons because you can't serve alcohol until 11:30 on Sundays in Georgia with a permit. So you can't buy a Bloody Mary in the Atlanta airport at 10:30 in the morning on a Sunday. The whole state of Georgia. So it's just like there's different laws everywhere. They used to be 12:30 and they took the time to change the law and they changed it to 11:30. So they spent all that work and moved it up an hour. Like most places had gone to 10 or 9 a.m., but like they want you in church and it's the South, and like it's just a different era where out coming out of Prohibition, they created all these crazy alcohol laws and they just never changed in some of these states.

Charlotte/South Carolina blue laws

Luke 23:57

Yeah, no, I I used to live in South Carolina, so I'm familiar with with some of those uh blue laws and everything we had that back in the day over there for sure.

John 24:04

But um still to this day, I'm in I'm in Charlotte. I'm in North Carolina, city limits of Charlotte, North Carolina. South Carolina's four miles from me. Um you both states you cannot buy hard liquor on Sundays from a liquor store, still to this day. Like North Carolina is all state-run liquor, South Carolina is at least not state-run liquor, but neither of them are you allowed to go buy a bottle of vodka. Or even like now with this era of surf sides and sun cruisers and stuff like that, you can't go buy those on Sundays. You can at a bar, but like if we run out of vodka at a Panther's tailgate, there's no going to buy more vodka. You're done. In either of the states, like you're done. Like you have to be prepared until Monday. So in South Carolina, their liquor stores are still 7 p.m. every day. And it has to be a separate side for wine than the liquor, like completely like they have these two-sided stores still. Like there's some crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy rules in uh in some of these places. And um, they're trying to loosen them up in some of these places, but it's still taking a long time.

Bills Stadium — 110-120K tailgaters outside 73K stadium

Luke 25:01

Sure, sure. So if we if we go north now and head back up to Buffalo, you know one of the things that a lot of people think about at Buffalo tailgates is how many tables got injured and broken at a tailgate. Like, is that a prevalent thing still, or is that just kind of you see a few on social media, it's not, they don't do it that much other with people jumping and smashing these tables.

20 tables break every game — that's Bills Mafia

John 25:25

So the Bills Stadium holds 73,000 right now. I would say 110 to 120,000 people tailgate. I would say 20 tables break. It's just you see the one that goes viral on social media, the one that's on fire on bar stool, and you're like, oh my God, this in Buffalo. And uh over nine plus years of Buffalo, I think we probably had like 12 break at our event. And it's usually in a way fan that just goes and breaks a random table and thinks they're like, it's like what makes you think you can buy a $60, $70 or ticket and break our $100 table? Like it's just like we have it in our terms and everything. Like our insurance hates it, our parking lot owners hate it. Like a lot, most of the lots and stuff have banned it. Like they don't want these. I mean, God forbid anything happens. Like those metal bars in the middle of the table aren't necessarily like the night, like anything could happen. Like, I don't think you want to be stabbed in the stomach by one of those metal bars in the middle of the table, but I don't think that's fun. But like our our competition on the road and Buffalo and some of these things, like they they really force people, like they really push the table breaking things, and like people are scraping their face and hitting their head and stuff. I just don't want to be liable for somebody that hurts themselves and stuff like that. I think it's dumb. We've done a couple stunts like with sign waivers and things. Like um uh this year we had Kraft Heinz come to us, and they're like the Kool-Aid man. We want to do these like crazy viral videos, like put the Kool-Aid man in random places. And we want him to like like they literally want the Kool-Aid man to appear at this concert, appear at this, and they're like, we thought Bill's mafia tailgate. So we had these like they had these like red tables that were like pre-broken, but they're real tables, and like we had the Kool-Aid man come in, they shot a commercial at the tailgate, like jumping off our stage through the table. But every single time we have done this, whether it's somebody I know, a famous person, the Kool-Aid man, the Bills lose. So we're done with it. Like that was the Bills Patriots game, Sunday night game earlier this year. The Kool-Aid man goes through a table, the Bills lose. Um, our friends in Atlanta are stunt people with the movie industry there. The next week we played in Atlanta, and our friend like went through two tables off this thing, like because he's a stunt man and signed everything, the Bills lost. So, like we're just it's just bad luck right now. So I think we're done with it for for now. But um, and we can't have 2,000 people looking at the nearest table. Like when somebody breaks the table, we have to like shut it down very quickly, our security and stuff, because you can't have everybody else being like, I want to break something too and have nothing. Like, um I just don't think it's that big of a thing. We always have like the the person on live chat throughout the week, like, my son's 10th birthday's on Sunday, and he really wants to just break a table. How can we make this happen? And it's like, go buy a table and do it on somebody else's property. Like um, like I don't want to be responsible for your 10-year-old like busting his head open on our our on on the ground in our parking lot. But like, I don't I'm kind of with Josh Allen. Like he says he'll go through a table at the Super Bowl parade. So if we win a Super Bowl, break as many tables as you want. Like, Brandon Bean, the Bills GM, the coach, all of them are like, we'll go through a table when the Bills win the Super Bowl. So um I think he said he'll drop he'll jump off one of the parade buses through a table, is what Josh Allen said. So like that stuff, whatever. But I don't I don't even know really when it started. It was just somewhere in the end of the drought years, we had that 17-year drought, and at some point that was the entertainment we came up with. And I just remember that first playoff game when we ended the drought, we played in Jacksonville for that wild card, and people were like checking their tables as like their second free bag on Southwest. And there's this like folding tables at like the carousel and things like that, and like it was going viral. And I don't know, I think over the years of winning, like I think the craziness and the the people that used to try to entertain myself themselves has kind of died down. So um if you come to Buffalo, you'll see a little bit of it, but I I mean it there's you then now it's it's got gotten so publicized where like the CBS pre-game crew comes through and has these like duct taped pre-broken tables and they're doing it for a stunt, and it's just ridiculous now. Like um, I don't because you get all these like big networks that are like, well, you can do it, but you have to have the pre-broken table and this and that, and all the like it's just it's just I think it's it's it's it's kind of gotten depleted over the years. I would say there's less and less every single week. And I think you get more of it on the road now where the bills go into places and the home teams like breaking tables because Buffalo's there. I think they're trying to like fit in. Like you're starting to see like we'll see if the Brown we haven't played the Browns in Cleveland in six years, so we'll see on Sunday if the Browns fans are like they missed out on the table trend and now they're all excited to do it again. But um based on the ticket price on Sunday, I don't think any of the Browns fans are that excited to go to this game. So I mean though Miles Garrett can set up Miles Garrett can set an NFL record for sacks in a season. So like oh I mean that is pretty cool, but but not against the Bills, probably.

Would John jump through a table if Bills win the Super Bowl?

Luke 30:02

You wanted to be against the team, maybe, right?

John 30:04

I mean when we put Mitch Trubisky in in the third quarter, you can sack him a couple times when we're up by 30.

Luke 30:09

Yeah. So John, is it is it fair to say, am I hearing correctly, that if the Bills win the Super Bowl this year, you're going through a table?

John 30:18

Um, yeah, I mean, I'll I'll help put Josh Allen through a table, whatever we're gonna do. Like, um, if he needs help, I mean, I'll I'll go through a table. If the Bills win the Super Bowl, there's a million things I can do that are probably podcast friendly, but like there's a million things I would do to guarantee a Super Bowl at this point. Like it it's it's all I really want. Like, it's just gotta happen. Like this, this we can't be wasting the talent of Josh Allen and not win a Super Bowl in this era. Like, there's just somebody and if there's ever a year, every quarterback that's beaten Josh Allen in the playoffs is out of the playoffs right now.

Luke 30:48

That is true. That is

AFC landscape — Mahomes, Burrow, and the Bills

Luke 30:50

true.

John 30:50

The story is you never know. It's Mahomes, it's it's it's Mahomes, it's Burrow, beat him once, and Deshaun Watson technically beat him once when they lost the Texans, Josh the second year. So the quarterbacks that have beaten Josh Allen in the playoffs are not in the playoffs. So, and that's Mahomes every time but two. So um the guys that have been, and if you look at Josh Allen's playoff stats, like by the game average by like playoff per game average, it's like the highest ever. Like that the touchdowns, the yards, that like he he becomes superman in the playoffs. He's not the reason we've lost any of these Super Bowl or any of these playoff games. So um we'll see. Uh, these are some damn good defenses in in the in this playoffs, though. So we'll we'll see how the the Broncos and the Texans and some of these defenses play. But I don't know. I think this is the this is the year. Um whether they have to come out of the wild, maybe this year it's just they have to come out of the wild card and they don't get the home playoff games and they have to go a different route, but um, we'll see. I I'm I'm if they have to go on the road in the divisional round, I don't hate coming up your way to Colorado to Denver, so I can go get some skiing in and sneak in some of my ski days there after try

Super Bowl travel preparation

John 31:56

to get it.

Luke 31:56

I'll come down for that game too. We can just tailgate in.

John 32:00

Yeah, I mean, we're we're prepared right now for no matter where Buffalo goes, no matter where Pittsburgh goes, no matter where some of these teams go. So um should be fun. We'll hopefully we get to find out a little bit more in the this weekend and next weekend. Um unfortunately now the Bills to win the division, we're rooting for Quinn Ewers for the Dolphins to beat the Patriots or like or some, I don't even I forget the guy's name that's starting for the Jets, but they're like we're we're counting on these like seventh-round rookie quarterbacks because we need the Patriots to lose one more divisional game, so to win the division. So uh it's not looking great

Unpredictable season recap

John 32:31

for them.

Luke 32:31

It's been a weird year. It could, it could anything could happen, I feel like, with the football I've seen so far this year, but I wouldn't I wouldn't bank bank on some of those quarterbacks winning um against New England. But let me ask you this, John. So I'm assuming if I said uh which fan base are the best tailgators out there? Am I assuming if I say Buffalo, is it it's uh is that putting words in your mouth or is that a fair statement?

Best tailgate cities — Buffalo is top 3

John 32:54

No, it I it's it's it's Buffalo. I mean, I've been to been around every stadium. I've been in the game to all but three now, current stadium. So like I've seen tailgating everywhere. I I mean it's it's Buffalo and then it's everybody else, I think. Um there it's like a college atmosphere, it's just a different animal there. I mean, there's some other good tailgate cities that do it really well, like some of these, like the Kansas cities and the I mean some of these other places that that do a good job with it. Um some surprising ones. Like the Ravens are really, really good at tailgating, both on like our all-inclusive type tailgate level and on the the regular tailgate level. But um yeah, I mean there's there's some places that just don't do a good job at all. Like there's some places where it's just kind of sterile, and like I know you've been to a lot of places as well, but um we try to replicate what Buffalo is everywhere else. Unfortunately, not every fan base is like Buffalo, and no matter how they play is is gonna show up. And the NFL, as the NFL gets more and more expensive for a family of four to go and things like that, and it it's there's it you can go buy an 85-inch TV now for like 400 bucks versus like some of these games you're talking fifteen hundred dollars for a family of four to go. So um you really have to there's a lot of people that just go tailgate now and they'll just go tailgate. Like in a place like Buffalo where it's in the suburbs, there's people that go tailgate for three hours and then go drive 10 minutes back home and watch the game. So because you can't right here, I do

MetLife vs Bills lot — night and day

John 34:17

that on the back.

Luke 34:17

Yeah.

John 34:19

Meanwhile, if you're in like the MetLife Stadium parking lot, you might not make it back with before the game's over to New York City. Like there's some of these places where you're gonna sit in traffic for longer than um than than some of these places. And um, I I wish that that we could get that culture going everywhere. I mean, there's there's some of these places where like we do New York now and like the Jets and Giants right now. It's like nobody wants to go to New Jersey to watch their losing team right now. Like it it's it's a very thin market. Um but like we do a lot of the concerts and stuff there and things where people go no matter what, because it's New York City. So it's just it's just figuring out each place. Every single city's so different, no two markets are the same, and like no two fan bases are the same. And we kind of try to tailor everything to those those those those fan bases. Um but um some cultures like like we have Detroit this weekend. Unfortunately, like when there's games like this, it's it's cold out, it's a 425 game. People want to watch the other games. The tailgating culture just depletes down because there's you're in the middle of a city, there's bars to go to, there's things to go. People would rather go sit in the chain restaurant right there and watch on a million TVs and walk two blocks the game because they're already gonna be nobody wants to go tailgate outside in the cold and then go into a 70-degree dome. When like when there's other gates. No, I'm not saying nobody. I'm just saying like it it sucks, it sucks how you we have some of these markets and stuff, whereas like the Buffaloes and the Pittsburghs and stuff like that are doing it in whatever weather, it doesn't matter what the weather is, they're gonna show up and um dealing with some of these transplant markets and stuff too. Like we do care, we've done Carolina just as long as we've done Buffalo. Like next weekend we have the Seahawks here. Like the Seahawks are one of the best teams in football, but 90% of Charlotte's a transplant from somewhere else, and they all go home for Christmas, and they're all like the city's empty for a December 28th game. So and they're playing for something, and like they're they have meaningful games going on, and it's like playing for something in that

Panthers vs Bucs, Seahawks relevance

John 36:16

in that game, right?

Luke 36:16

Because they're relevant.

John 36:18

Both teams are that the Panthers play the Bucks, the Seahawks, the Bucks. Like all three of those games are very important. They have to win. And what's if the Panthers end up winning that division, it's probably gonna be the Seahawks coming back to Carolina. So you could have Bucks, Seahawks, Bucks, Seahawks as the next four Panthers games because the the way it's gonna work out. So um, yeah, there's a lot of meaningful football going on and some which means meaningful tailgating. Like I know you most tailgates like should be no matter what, but unfortunately there's there's the point where people just eh it's too cold to make excuses, and there's those markets where they're fair weather, not just for the team, but like it's 40 degrees out, it's 30 degrees out. Whereas in Buffalo, we've had tailgates where you have to put your beer on the fire pit to make sure the beer doesn't freeze because it's negative six out and people are still out. Like, so it's just different cultures, and uh not not everybody grew up dealing with whatever weather it takes to go see these teams play, and um we have to deal with it. I mean, the the wind, the this, the that, like uh some of these places you get 40 mile an hour gusts, 50 mile-an-hour gusts, and you have like hurricane force winds. And people are like, why aren't all the tents up? And it's like because it's 50 mile-an-hour winds off Lake Erie. Like, like it's just like there's there's certain things the the human element, the the the weather elements, things like that. That's the one thing, unfortunately, we have not figured out is how to change the weather. So we're working on that. We can't change the team's results and we can't change the weather. We're we're working on it though.

Personal tailgate food preferences — wings

Luke 37:42

For sure, for sure. Well, John, let me ask you a f a few questions now to uh just your personal perspective. I know you are working hard, like at all of these tailgates, making sure things go flawlessly for the customers. But let's just say in this scenario, you actually get to chill, you get to relax for all of this. What would be in you on your plate? What's your favorite tailgate to eat?

Drums vs flats debate

John 38:09

Okay, let me think about this for a second. Um I mean I I feel like a good I mean the go-to in most places is like the barbecue, like the brisket's the things like that. Um we we have some really good wing places, stuff like that, obviously with the buffalo element, like some of these these these wing places. Um I would probably just go with I would say barbecue in general, like brisket type barbecue. Um on a on an average basis. I think that's what we probably have the most. And I would say like a good quality barbecue is kind of the go-to and and what I'm looking for. But uh there's a lot of events I forget to eat. Like it's crazy because we're just so running around with your head cut off busy, and like somebody will come up to me with like, eat, go sit in the corner for a second. I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot to eat for the last four hours. Like so um like in Buffalo every week, and I can't I don't want to keep just talking about Buffalo, but we do like a wing-eating competition, and there's like times where I'm like on stage while we're doing the wing-eating competition, there's a tray of wings sitting there, and I'm just like I'll just like grab one off the the tray and I'm like, oh yeah, I need to remember to eat. But and uh no, I would say I would say probably like some of the best food we've ever had is probably the the brisket barbecue, things like that. We do a lot of barbecue cities like Kansas City and things like that where we have really good quality barbecue.

Blue cheese vs ranch — Buffalo style

Luke 39:17

What a so you mentioned wings there. So uh are you uh drums or flats personally?

John 39:24

If I'm at a really good wing place and they're perfectly crispy, I think the drums, a perfectly cooked drum is the best. But like most places I think don't know how to cook wings properly and don't make them crispy enough, things like that. So I obviously flats, but I I I mean I'm not gonna turn down good quality wings, both options. Um yeah, there's been some funny interactions over the years. It's amazing how much interaction you get on our Buffalo account if you just put like drums or flats or whatever. Like back when Stefan Diggs was on the Bills. We had like asked like Isaiah McKenzie, who was one of the Bills receivers at the time. Like we asked him like drums or flats, and he said drums, and like Stephon Diggs got in a Twitter argument, like you dirty ass eating drums, this, that, and all the receivers were going at each other in our replies, like and um there's some people being like, Well, Stefan, you like flats, he likes drums, why don't you guys go get wings together and you can split them? Like, like they got the hey, you guys are perfect pair to go hang out together because you can't each eat both. But if you're at Barbill or one of these really good quality wing places, like it, it there's nothing like it. Some of these places have started charging like crazy fees for all flats or all this, like um, the like so many people order all flats and they're stuck with all these drums. So they started like charging like $3 per order for for flats. But um, what about you? Are you um flats or drums?

Flats vs drums — final answer

Luke 40:40

I mean, A, like you said, I'm not gonna turn down either one. I'm gonna go with the flats though, when asked the question. I those just a little bit more than the drums, but again, I'm not fighting anybody over it either.

Buffalo blue cheese is different

John 40:52

Yeah, and of course, like the same cut comes with the ranch or blue cheese. Like in Buffalo, when it's the really good quality, like homemade blue cheese, compared to this watered-down stuff you get at some of these restaurants, and like like the real good quality blue cheese is is better than ranch all the way. Like, there's some there's some places in Buffalo you might get kicked out of the place if you even think about asking for ranch because like how good quality the the the blue cheese is there. So um yeah, I think that's probably the angle there with uh yeah, you have to go the blue cheese. And we obviously serve both in all of our places because there's people that don't even don't know, but uh a perfectly cooked drum blue cheese. And uh when you go to Buffalo, don't go to Anchor Bar, there's 277 better wing places.

What's in the cup — whiskey coke

Luke 41:36

Wow, okay, you just throw away some shade here. All right, shifting gears over what's in your cup? What is your favorite drink to have uh okay?

Regional tailgate drinks — Ravens orange crush

John 41:49

Um I'm a big like whiskey coke person. I feel like I'm more like whiskey, like what whichever I mean, obviously we have brands and stuff like that we work with, but like whiskey coke. I would say generally I'm dr if I'm gonna drink, I'm gonna drink and I'm gonna have like a whiskey coke, things like that. I think more more than ever. Surfside slash sun cruiser is a close second. Like those those that's the kind of trend right now is those vodka teas, vodka lemonades, those kind of drinks are those are like you can have like 16 of them and you're like, oh wait, like you forget that you're like just pounding them because they're so they're so good and they're so easy to drink. So um in the right scenario, it just depends where we are. Um but yeah, I mean I would if I'm in at one of our tailgates, the the go-to is some sort of whiskey, whiskey coke, and the bartenders just know if I like point and like do this, like they know what to bring over. Give me the usual, right? Uh that's the nice thing when you host these events and things like that. And uh that's one of the one of the benefits is you can just kind of like you like this, that, like um, and we've gotten pretty good at at doing these things. And as we do these events and stuff, we have former players and all these different things we're hosting. I'm more in the taking care of sponsors and former players department than the actual ops anymore on site, hopefully. So um it it helps to be able to cut the line and grab a drink when you need to. What what what about you? What's your go-to drink? Just so we know we have it ready for you next time when you finally come to work. I'm usually Buffalo that's not a miserable weather.

Luke 43:15

I I don't turn down a lot of free drinks um for it, but again, I'm I'm a craft beer guy, right? So again, like having having a local IPA is something I'm usually going to gravitate towards, like if I if I have options, um, you know, one of these tailgates. But if somebody's like, hey, Luke, like this is like the mixed drink you gotta have, like it's local, it's cultural for this, like you got inside, yeah. Let's go. Let's taste it, right? Type of deal. But usually I'm looking in the cooler for a local like craft beer that maybe I couldn't get out here in Colorado or something to expand my flavor palette, so to speak.

John 43:46

There's some crazy like regional drinks and stuff. Like um, you'd be surprised how these Ravens fans, like the orange crushes and stuff like that, like they have six signature drinks where they just pound them like left and right, and like we pre-batch and pre-drink um. We started doing like our our Buffalo crew started doing like Mafia Margarita or something like that this year was just like a a a twist on a margarita and things like that. We were they're like, We're running out of this, this, and this because we're just pounding these all the time. And um, so we started doing that where some of these places like Hard Rock Stadium and stuff where we have to deal with the stadium vendors, so like, well, what should we do? And we're like, Well, we'll pre-batch a ton of this. Like, we just started doing like a signature drink at each event and things like that. But you'd be surprised, like, some of these places just that they have a cultural, like, this is our drink, and they all drink it. And uh it it's it there's some really interesting like science behind what people drink and stuff like that. We've learned, like, okay, this team's coming to town, get the blah blah blah ready. Like you're like, oh, we really need this drink or that drink, or um and it is very regional, like a lot of these places and what people drink, and uh everybody's always gonna drink the light beers and the vodka sodas and the basic stuff, but there's a lot of regional, like up, we're playing a Southern California team, make sure there's more tequila or whatever it is. Like you start to like regionalize things.

Favorite tailgate game — cornhole and giant Jenga

Luke 44:59

All right, we talked about games obviously a little bit earlier. What is your favorite? You you played a lot of games, obviously, like I have. What is your favorite single game game? If you could pick one.

The Quarterback game as an alternative

John 45:10

Uh oh, geez. Um I mean, obviously there's the classics, the the cornholes, the like giant Jenga's, all that stuff. Um, my dad's always like gotten on me and stuff. He goes, I don't know why you guys are all trying to sell all these different games. There's there's one classic tailgate game that's the best. And he's like, it's just a football. Like just having a football, just tossing the football around. And Bills Chiefs this year, we had a sold out our biggest tailgate ever in in Buffalo. And all of a sudden, somebody starts throwing a football around the crowd. And like we have these shipping container bars, we have rooftop decks with private groups, all this stuff. Next thing you know, like football's getting tossed around. And when you have a bunch of people that are drinking and not paying attention, it's probably not the best, and people that don't know how to throw footballs. Um, it's probably not the best thing, but it was a lot of fun. I was on stage at that point where we're just ripping the football back and forth, like passing it around. So I mean, there's nothing like just tossing the football around. I mean, but I mean, the classic games, the cornholes, the things like that are always a lot of fun too. I don't get to play as many games anymore. It's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of it's been a it's been a while since I've like, as somebody that hosts a lot of these big produced tailgate events, it's been a while since I've been like behind an actual tailgate sitting there like with 12 people and and and playing games. So um that's just the nature of the beast when you build these bigger events out. But um we try to we try to find some unique games. We've we've gotten away from a lot of the throw the frisbee, throw the ball, throw the stuff too far stuff when you have this many people. But uh we have the classics, the giant Jengas, the cornholes. Unfortunately, a cornhole set four people can play and it takes up a lot of space.

Cornhole line management problem

Luke 46:42

Yeah, is the unfortunate business where it's like cool main man too compared to some of these.

John 46:46

A lot of time. There's a lot of lines that build up when you only have a few cornhole sets and people are like, we got next, and then they went like these guys are uh pros out there, like going alternating, cutting each other off.

Timing issues at MetLife tailgates

Luke 46:56

So it's like three to two, thirty minutes into the game.

John 46:59

Yeah, and you have like the tailgates over before anybody else gets to switch over. So we do a lot of like the the giant Jenga stuff like that. We we did something this year with uh Papa Shot they'd created through this football toss game. So we had Papa Shots like football toss games and all that.

New tailgate game options

Luke 47:14

What did you think about that game? Did you play it?

John 47:16

I mean, they're they're pretty fun. I mean, it's just a a new version. Um get your get your tool set out. They they're they're there's a lot of pieces. Let's just say that. If you do get set one, or do you do have one?

Luke 47:26

I'm looking at it over here for a similar one just with their basketball one I have down here in the bay. And I and I remember it took me as just going solo by myself with no help. And it took me a little while to put it together. So you're not lying in that respect. I mean, again, it's probably one of the games in the every time I walk by, my wife says, every time he walks by the Pope-shot game, he always has to take a couple

Basketball hoop comparison

Luke 47:45

of shots.

John 47:45

I'm like, yeah, and I'm gonna keep on doing it because it's like when you're a kid and you have the basketball hoop on the back of your door, like you're just taking those shots all the time or shooting stuff into it. But yeah, then there's some unique stuff that are like tailored to different sports too. Like we're getting ready to do all this World Cup stuff around the the the games in in June, July. And like we have those like those sub soccer games where like they're those like table games where you have the soccer underneath and you're kicking back and forth and things, and like some stuff we're trying to bring elements into. Um, I think we're gonna have like some of the FIFA video games, stuff like that, people playing, like working on some of that stuff. So we try to find unique ways to to do it, but when you have these big bulk events, it's it's it's tough to mix in as many games. And unfortunately, like we have these these games that come to us, they're like, We're the next is we still have the we're the next cornhole, or the we're the next this, but they're like, it takes up 40 feet and it's this, and you're throwing a football and this and that. It's like, well, we can't have that with a thousand people here. Like but uh yeah. Um yeah, I mean the classic cornhole is probably the the the winner there to that question, yes, ten minutes ago. Perfect, perfect.

Favorite Bills player of all time

Luke 48:47

Um, who is your favorite Bills player of all time, current or former?

John 48:51

Ooh. Um are we talking just best or just like favorite? Um whatever, whoever resonated the most important. I mean, it's it's right now, right now it's hard to say anybody but Josh Allen just because of what he's done for this team and and taken things to the next level. And um, great guy, down to earth guy, got been lucky enough to become close with his family and everything. And I it's wild now where I'm in a world where like growing up, I was born just after the fourth Super Bowl. My parents, my dad would talk about Andre Reid and Thurman Thomas and all these Jim Kelly, all these guys, and now they're like friends. Like we we I've like Andre and I text about things and this and that, and we hope we we've had him at the tailgates and events, and it's like it's weird to go from that like fandom, like, oh my god, that's so-and-so, to like, oh, these, oh, what's up, Andre? How are you? Blah, blah, blah. Let's go get in. It's like, it's just like once you be kids and know everybody as players. On the opposite side, too. Like last year, I was lucky enough to have credentials for the Super Bowl and was on the field the opening night, and the footage will never get released, but like like we asked, we we did put out a video where we asked all the Chiefs fans their favorite Kansas City Barbecue, or the Chiefs players, all their favorite Kansas City barbecue place, and the Eagles players, all their favorite Philly cheesesteak spots. But there's that moment where like you want to hate the Chiefs, but like they're all just cool guys, this and that. And there's me like dapping up all the Chiefs players and stuff after interviewing them, and I'm like, that footage got cut and it's never gonna get posted. But like you get to know these guys and like these players, and they're all just they're humans, like they're they're cool people to be around and things like that. So uh there's some fun players from the drought, though. I mean, like Stevie Johnson and and some of these guys that have played for the Bills that are a lot of a lot of fun and gotten to know them over the years. Um I mean, I I I would say I mean, right now it's Josh, that's the easy answer, but um, there's a lot of fun players over the years for the Bills. And uh yeah, I mean, I it's just Josh is I mean, the the numbers he puts up, the what he's done for for Buffalo and and and probably keeping the team there. Like I don't know if they invest in a two billion dollar stadium without winning in Josh Allen and things like that to keep the team there for the next 30 years. So just the impact he's had on it, there there's nothing like it. But there's been so many like cool, fun players over the years for the Bills, and there's there's a lot of fun, like awesome people on this team right now. And um some of those guys that were in that bridge era too, where they made the playoffs with the team in 2017, 2018, things like that that are now the ones that come back the um are are a lot of fun as well. Who who's your favorite Niners player?

Montana vs Brady debate

Luke 51:23

I mean, your Niners guy, who's your J Joe Montana, like that's the reason why I I grew up. I was an 80s baby, so like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice. I'm looking at uh Jerry Rice setting me back up when I was a kid. I I sent him a letter and I was like, can I get a signed photograph? And I'm sure it wasn't him that mailed it, but he probably signed a stack. And they they said, I still haven't framed in the basement over here. So yeah, Montana to Rice combo is what had me as as a kid. And you know, one of the things is like once I'm with you, like I'm with you for life, good, good, bad, or ugly type of type of deal for it.

John 51:53

I I used to try to argue the Montana over Brady as much as I could because I just could not stand Tom Brady.

Luke 51:59

I don't even argue that because I I Brady, like, all of respect to him. I mean totally different types of game, like you know, from the time Brady was playing to when Montana was playing, but it's like I'm not even gonna I I feel like Joe Montana's probably one went undefeated in Super Bowls.

Montana went four for four

John 52:14

One went four for four in Super Bowls, one one didn't. So um Yeah.

Luke 52:18

I mean I'm not I'm not I'm not never gonna put down Tom Brady because again, I think I'm a Notre Dame football guy

CFP expansion and the Alabama controversy

Luke 52:24

too.

John 52:24

So obviously, Montana. Like you try to like try to rep Montana. Uh we got screwed out of the playoffs this year. I mean that that was uh crazy. Like I was in the middle of Bill's bangles, and I didn't even like pay attention. Like our team was putting all the bowl games and stuff up. We're getting ready to do four out of the six college football bowl games and for the playoff bowls. And um so they were all working on that that day. After the game, I was like, wait, Notre Dame didn't make it? Like I assume this they're the 10 seed because they were in it that whole time. And um, yeah, it's it's crazy how like who knows with these college games, and but we're getting ready to do Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl. So we got a lot of stuff coming up. So um it will still be exciting, but like when your team's just like the first team out, it's just like so hard to get into the the college bowl games and things like that.

Luke 53:10

And yeah, for the a casual fan, like I almost say casual. I'm I'm a game cog. Again, we had no we sucked this year, right? For lack of a better word, um, with it. But it's like I don't really care who made the playoffs at that point if it wasn't the game cogs, but it's like to be like Alabama, like I haven't did a short video on it. I'm just like, not that I have any.

Alabama shouldn't have been in the CFP

John 53:29

Alabama shouldn't have been in it.

Luke 53:31

Yeah. Um now again I'm gonna do it.

John 53:32

I agree, Miami. Miami-Notre Dame, you can argue all day long because Miami beat them in week one. The the Notre Dame going on a 10-0 run, not losing those to those bad teams, dominating every team they played, and only having lost to AM by one point and Miami by three points. And Miami was your first game with a freshman quarterback in Miami in a hostile environment, and you lose by a missed field goal. Like Bama at three losses. I mean, it's just they were the first team to not drop after losing their conference championship in the history of this playoff. Like even when it was a four-team playoff, if you lose the conference, you're at least dropping one or two. And what all of a sudden, that last week when all of a sudden they flipped Bama and Notre Dame, you knew they were setting something up, or if Bama lost, they were gonna just like, oh, we went from nine to ten. Whoops. Like so um, I don't know. I mean, but and and that's another thing with these events and stuff, like the college football playoff expandings made these the people that be you the ability for people to travel and go to these events and tailgate and do these things is just it's tougher and tougher when you have when you went from maybe making a semi and then the championship and go to two games. Now all of a sudden you might have to go to four games. Like as a Notre Dame fan last year, I didn't go to the on-campus game, but I went to the other three games. And like you're traveling to New Orleans and back, and then Miami and back, and then Atlanta for the championship. Like some of these fans have uh it it's those middle games all of a sudden aren't as intended as when it was these standalone bowl games. And now you now you have these some of these smaller bowl games where like the the Boca Ratan bowls now presented by Bush's bake beans. If you bring a two dollar can of beans, you can go to the game for free. The first 2,000 fans that bring a can of beans get to go to a bowl game for like $2. And it's like these these non-playoff bowls have just been depleted down to nothing where it's like like they're literally like bring a can of our product and we'll let you in the front door because we can't sell the tickets anyway. Or like you had this bowl, that Gronk whatever bowl, whatever in LA presented by Gronk or whatever last weekend, and you have people on six days notice having to f like the bowl game was six days after they announced the bowls, and there's three thousand people there. Like there's nobody in SoFi Stadium, and it's just and it's two West Coast teams, Boise State playing Washington, and like I don't know. I just I wish the these bowl games and stuff still meant something, and like a lot of them don't, but the playoff I think is a way better situation than uh a couple years ago when it was the four-game playoff, and you were the fifth team out and you're screwed. I mean, last year number seven and number eight won went to the championship. Notre Dame and Ohio State and Ohio State won. So

ACC playing 8 vs 9 conference games next year

John 56:07

Yeah.

Luke 56:07

I mean I feel like we could do a whole show just on this topic alone with the landscape of college football from NIL to the playoffs and bowl games. And I I do believe that I think that's a good thing.

John 56:18

To the ACC having some teams play nine games next year and some teams play eight? I've heard that.

Luke 56:25

So that is that's news to me right now.

John 56:27

There's five teams that are only gonna play eight conference games next year, and the rest are gonna play nine because there's an odd number of teams because they only have 17 teams or something like that. So they can't and I don't know how they're gonna they already had the worst tiebreaker system this year. I don't know how they're gonna do it if somebody's nine and one and somebody's eight and one, who gets to go in when you only could play nine games? There's some crazy stuff going on there. Now you have these super conferences, and it's kind of killed these conference title games, at least for us. Like we used to love doing the SEC Championship, the Big Ten Championship, the ACC championship, and there's divisions, and Georgia could win the SEC East the first week of November. We knew like, okay, we have Georgia for the next three weeks to market and produce these events. Now it's there's nine teams alive for the conference champion six days out or seven days out, and it's like half of them didn't play the other half of the teams, and you don't know who's better than who, and it's it's just you're gonna have these mega conferences pretty soon where it's gonna be these 20 team conferences, and um you have an Indiana and Ohio State where they went through the whole year without playing like the same similar teams in the same conference, and now like you're like, I have no clue until you got to the conference championship who's better, and you still don't know. Maybe like Indiana might have just gotten them lucky. So um who knows? That was a really good game though.

Georgia vs Notre Dame rematch possibility

Luke 57:39

I wouldn't be mad at a rematch if that were to happen. I thought that was a really really good game for the championship for this soon.

John 57:45

Oh yeah, oh yeah, and they're they they they stuck at one and two, so um, that could be the championship rematch, and Georgia looks very, very good. Texas Tech, we'll see of how the Big 12 stacks up against these teams, and you have JMU and two lane in some of these games where it's like you don't think they're gonna win, but who knows? Like JMU could go into Oregon and upset them. Like, there's a lot of craziness that could happen. And Oregon has played one tough game all year and it was against Indiana, and they lost. So, like you don't know, like maybe JMU could be to Oregon. I don't know. Like, it's just the unknown of of college football. So we'll see lots of tailgates, lots of events and things to come up, and we we have to pay attention to all the stuff that's going on in sports, not just uh focusing on the tailgates because there's so many different opportunities when these teams win or lose.

Luke 58:26

No doubt, no doubt. Well, John, let me ask you one more question before we wrap up here. If you could go back in time and give advice to the uh young John that was 16 years old building cornhole boards, or something you've learned over the course of your journey that would have helped him out, what would you tell him?

Advice to younger self in the tailgate business

John 58:43

Oh geez. Um there's there's so many, like there's so many times where like you ever just like think about something and like it's a moment where like, why did I say that? Why did I do this? Why did I do that? Like you just have like those flashbacks and like the the 15 years later embarrassment of like why did I say that? Why did I do this? Um I I don't know, I think there's just things you learn as you build a business and as you grow about the markets and the the and and how to market things, how to brand things, how to build things, how to do it. Where it's like you look back and you're like, wait, I did that. Like, like I there's nothing specific, there's no one thing, but I think it's just the wealth of knowledge I have now on this world and the market and all the connections and everything I have. And you never know who you're talking to or who you're working with, and like you just have to like shake everybody's hands, be nice to everybody, like interact with everybody because one person, meeting one person 15 years ago could lead to four connections later from that person being who you need to make something happen. And there's so many things I trace back to. I'm like, well, that was a really stupid business idea that I did, or this or that, or invested in this or whatever, in the tailgate game era. But it's like I met so-and-so who eventually introduced me to so-and-so, and so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so, and like the only reason you know this person is because seven connections ago, you talked to this guy. Like, and it's a very tight-knit world, even the tailgating world, the the the sports events world, the whole sports travel world, like most people know each other, so um, it's all about connections. And make if I made some of them sooner, who knows? Um, but I think it's more just you never know who you're gonna talk to. You don't know if somebody's gonna try to spite you later because, like, oh, that guy never gave me a chance. Like, he just blew me off that one day I met him. Like, it could be positive or it could be negative. You can meet somebody that could be the next reason why you get this deal done, and especially now that we're working with all these different brands and and and sponsors and things, and it's like you never know who you're talking to. And um, we have a sales team and stuff now that handle a lot of it, but it's still about connections, and there's still a ton of people that no matter how big we get, um, and we have people that do things, I still get the text or I still get the calls because people are just like, Well, I know him from five years ago, and it's like, can you talk to my guy that does that now? But like, you want to still I can't do everything anymore. So, but uh yeah, I mean it's just all about connections and and and how you manage these relationships, and you never know there's some crazy things out there like that you never know just from responding to something um or or interacting or just taking a shot who's gonna be out there. And like we're we're doing a series that got bumped to next year, but we're doing um with with Sean Merriman's Lights Out Productions. We're gonna do these live tailgate shows

Seattle event still on the radar

John 1:01:13

and things like that.

Luke 1:01:13

And oh yeah, no, I was I was worried about that, so I'm excited it's still on the radar.

Buffalo at Seattle — what happened

John 1:01:18

It's still in the radar, but like last year what happened was our we posted about Seattle, our Buffalo at Seattle. Eric Wood, my friend, collabed with it, like who was the Bills old center, who's our play-by-play guy. Like Sean Merriman liked it or something. I think we followed him from Game Day Buffalo, and then he slid in our DMs. He's like, I'm coming to Buffalo, I'm shooting this tailgate show as a test run in a couple weeks. Like, can we work out something? And next thing you know, like 20 minutes later, my social media team's like, this guy's Sean Merriman, I don't know who it is, is like in our DMs. I'm like, let me handle this. And like 20 minutes later, we're on the phone and like we talk, blah, blah, blah, blah. And all because he liked a post, we collabed with a player, and we're like, oh, Sean Merriman exists. I forgot about that. And like now we talk all the time, and like we've we've worked on these different things, but like there's only like it's all about connections, and he's one of those guys where he has an MMA fighting league, he has this, he has that. I think he's the only person where in on any given day, like me and him had lunch at the Super Bowl last year, and he was meet his next meeting was Roger Goodell. So it's like he was meeting with the commissioner, he has a line to like the president of the United States, like no matter what side. Like I think he's the only one where it's like he could in any second text me, the commissioner of the NFL, the president of the United States, Dana White and him talk every week. Like, there's just people that just know everybody, and it's like you never know who you're gonna meet and become like close with and things like that. There's there's so many different connections and stuff where I feel like once you know 10 guys in the NFL, you're one text away from all of them. And so being able to like, hey, we're trying to get this guy this week, like you text X NFL player like so-and-so, and like they're like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember him, blah blah blah blah. Ten minutes later, you're in a group text with so and so. So, and we've got we've done a lot of these international trips now and things with the teams going international in the NFL, and we have these former players host, and you just get to know these guys, and you're hanging out in Brazil and Dublin and all these different places with former players, and you're grabbing lunches and things like that, and you really get to know these guys. And um, all of them just wanna like a lot of these former guys just don't get that opportunity to interact with fans anymore and want to be a part of the community and feel like be a part of it again. Like last year we had Doug Faludi, who played for the Bills. He was a legend of the game for the Bills. Uh, he came to our tailgate. He's a drummer in a band with his brother. So we had him on stage with our band playing drums at the tailgate. Couldn't get him out of there. Leading up to the week, he's like, I don't know if I want to come to this thing, whatever. We couldn't get him out of there. Running into him at the Super Bowl, and he goes, That's the most fun I've had like at a stadium since I retired. Like, I I got to be around the people and this energy and all this crap. Like, and these guys just want to be a part of it. And there's players like in Buffalo, George Wilson, who I've been close with, he played for the Bills for 13 years, and like I even I had forgotten, like, oh, he played for us, but he came with Merriman last year. And now it's like every week because he does the Bills post-game show now. He's like, Can I come by? Can I bring in this guy I played with from 10 years ago? I want to show him like this and show him the players, and they all just want to be a part of like that community and stuff again and be a part of the fans. So it's really cool to get to know a lot of these guys and make these connections. And um yeah, now and now it's crazy where these guys used to idolize stuff growing up and things like that, and now they're just phone contacts, and you're like, Oh yeah, I forgot about forgot about forgot about so and so. I gotta shoot them a text real quick. But like you never think like tailgating would lead you to like having be in the the Rolodex of of some of these people, and um yeah, it's it's kind of a crazy world. And we do a lot of content interaction stuff and things beyond just these events and uh try to interact with these different fan bases. So we have some pretty cool stuff coming out. Um, we have a reporter in Buffalo, Michael Schwartz, who we just partnered with, who's gonna do some longer form content for us for game day. And he was just the first reporter to go to Josh Allen's family farm in California and like go see where Josh Allen grew up and like go on the like the pistachio farm and like interview every single person in his family. Like ESBN hasn't done it, NFL Network hasn't done it, and he's doing it for us. Like we're gonna have long form content on our YouTube channel and things we're going behind the scenes of the players and like trying to create this new content. So we're not just posting come to our event, do this, do that, go bills, whatever. Like, we want to create this content and stuff around it. So you never know what what's gonna lead to um that. So like that, we're doing a full like premiere. Like, we're gonna do like a whole premiere in Buffalo with a theater and stuff to come watch the Josh Allen documentary. It's like roots of an MVP. So like there's these crazy things where it's just you never know, but getting to know like the Allen family over the years and hosting them for away things and stuff, like they trust us and they trust the the reporter and stuff to go film and not do anything that they wouldn't want to. Whereas when EFSPN or NFL Network comes in, you never know what they're gonna use, how they're gonna chop it up, what angle they're gonna take, things like that. So um, there's some pretty cool Deion Dawkins for the Bills is doing this like drifting stuff. It showed on Hard Knocks where he's doing car drifting and stuff. He's like we're going behind the scenes with that. So we're trying to do the show the whole game day experience, the whole sports world, the whole audience for these different markets. And there's a lot more to come. There's a lot more from this. It's not just tailgating. So it's pretty cool.

Never burn bridges, stay professional

Luke 1:06:05

No, I I love to hear all that. And one of the main things, too, back to the question, that's very sage advice, probably for everybody that's listened to this, is like work your connections, like treat everybody like they're the most important person in the room because you just never know. Like that person might die at the time, like, oh, this person's nobody, right? But they could blow up and be somebody big and they're going to remember that conversation that you had or maybe didn't have with them at some point. So just uh treat everybody kindly is what I took from that.

You never know who you're talking to

John 1:06:34

Yeah, and you never know who you're talking to. It could be an agent, could be this, could be that, could be somebody that's a family member or a friend or somebody. They're like, oh, I saw this or that. And you you never know where things are gonna lead you and uh the opportunities you're gonna get. There's a lot of things that happen, like we we're very on social media, public, things like that. But there's a lot of things that happen, events that happen, interactions that happen that don't are very much behind closed doors and things when you get to know a lot of these people and have relationships. And just because we're not posting about it doesn't mean it's not happening. And like that's how you build the rapport with a lot of these people, and like you get trusted to to go hang out and play golf and do this and do that. And like there's stuff that happens on the golf course that's not what's the public persona of these guys, and so um it's it's pretty, it's pretty cool to get to know the behind the scenes and the real people in in this world and the former players. So just be nice to everybody. Um, try to network and and and get to know as as many people as possible, and you never know what's gonna lead you. And uh um yeah. Um obviously we need to get you out to a tailgate at some point. It might be. I guess Bill's at Denver is probably our best bet if it happens.

Luke 1:07:35

Um it can happen.

John 1:07:37

That would be divisional, divisional round potentially, maybe maybe AFC championship.

Going to Super Bowl in Santa Clara?

Luke 1:07:43

So we'll see what happens.

John 1:07:45

Um are you going out to Santa Clara to Super Bowl or not yet?

Luke building his Rolodex

Luke 1:07:49

You don't maybe again still still work in some connection. I'm trying to get my Rolodex built like yours one day, sir, um, over here for something like with Super Bowl related and National Home Gating Day and all that good stuff that happens on Super Bowl Sunday um for it. But hey, you never never know where our paths may cross out there. But but John, tell me, tell me this, like as as we as as we wrap here for it. So this this is our last this is our last show of 2025. This is our now that's gonna be our longest episode so far. And I feel like I could talk to you for like three more hours and still like pick your brain with all the awesome stuff you have, right with your journey. No, no, I'm not saying that negative way. I'm saying that like you're just so easy to talk to and have so much like awesome like tailgate knowledge and behind the

Leave the fluff in — longest episode yet

Luke 1:08:30

scenes stuff.

John 1:08:30

You can cut out all the fluff.

Luke 1:08:32

No, we want to leave it all in there. Well, I think so. Um for but but John, tell us one more time, like you know, for the people that hung on to the end, A, we appreciate you all for hanging on to the end and listening to the whole conversation. But B, like if if people are looking for you, tell tell them about your socials, tell them about the experience, tell them why they need to come to Game Day Hospitality one more time to help with their easy button tailgate needs.

Nobody hosting more events next year — the full pitch

John 1:08:57

Yeah, I mean, there's there's again, nobody's hosting more tailgate events the next year. Uh we have these hassle-free tailgate events experiences, multiple different markets. Buffalo, Carolina, Cincinnati, Kansas City, New England, Pittsburgh, all over the place, New York, uh, Miami. I mean, there's a there's a bunch of different places. We we're in Ann Arbor and some of these college towns and stuff now. Um we have some fun concerts and stuff. We don't just do the the the tailgates. So uh we have a lot of these country concerts and stuff coming up. But follow at Game Day Hospitality on all social media there. We have the individual accounts. So if you're a uh a Broncos fan, you want to follow Game Day Denver. If you're a uh Jets or Giants fan, you want to follow Game Day New York. We have the the personalized accounts to each of those cities, so we're not just bombarding you with everything all the time. Nobody wants, unfortunately, on the main socials, if you post about the bills, 90% of the people are like, hey, screw the bills. We like the stealers or this or that. So we try to have the localized accounts and and and on the social side. But um, yeah, check out our website, gamedayhospitality.com, and uh we're we're on a bunch of different platforms, including Tailgate Connect there. Uh, there's a lot of different places you can go buy them, buy our tickets. So, and lots of cool things to come. We just announced our our 2026 um Game Day Goal Zone Um pre-get pre-match hospitality. We're doing it in nine out of 11 U.S. cities that are hosting. So um that's gonna be a little bit higher end, but there's there's premium stuff before some of these matches and all the way through the the final there in at MetLife. So uh lots of cool things to come, lots of concerts, lots of different events and stuff. And then stay tuned. We might be coming to your market sooner than later, um, whether it's with one of our home teams or or on the road with some of these road teams. And for the playoffs, we'll be there, and then we'll be in we'll be announcing our Santa Clara stuff pretty soon. So for the big game, and um no matter who's in it, um, hopefully we get a fun matchup. It could be my Bills versus your Niners or something

Bills vs 49ers Super Bowl banter

John 1:10:42

like that.

Luke 1:10:42

That'll be it.

John 1:10:44

You guys can lose another Super Bowl. You guys can lose another Super Bowl, and uh, we could finally win ours.

Luke 1:10:50

We've been doing that recently, um, no doubt about it. But again, if we even if we made it again, it could be a lot of people. Not the Chiefs this time. Yes, I I think that's the if we get a couple of fresh teams, even if Niners don't make it. If we get some fresh teams in there, I think that's what a lot of people are excited about for it. So, you know, again, there's some fun ones out there. Yeah, no, there's

Fun matchups, young QBs, good defenses

Luke 1:11:10

some fun teams out there.

John 1:11:10

There's a lot of fun teams, fun matchups, and young quarterbacks, young players, um, some good defenses. So um it's not gonna be Eagles versus Chiefs this year. So we'll we'll get a new fun. Um it's not gonna be one of these these we're gonna we're gonna get a we're gonna get a new matchup and uh it should be a lot of fun. And then we do do a lot of things like the Final Four and things like that for for college basketball and stuff, or not just football. So keeping keep an eye out for that. And uh yeah, we'll see you, we'll see you soon in one of these cities. I get to like 60 of our events a year. Um I'm bouncing around fine all over the place, all over the world. So um you got a lot of craziness, but uh there's days we have eight events in eight different cities. So um, I'll be at one of them. So we'll see you around.

Outro

Luke 1:11:51

Excellent. All right. Well, John, thank you so much for jumping on the Tailgate Connect podcast this evening. Because again, just like you all, like we are the easy button tailgate solution. We got the tickets for all of John's events out there as well, too. So www.tilgateconnect.com to hook up those easy button tailgating tickets, and you might just see John and have a lot of fun at one of his events that he does. Thanks for tuning in tonight, everybody. See you to Tailgate soon.

Music 1:12:15

Tailgate Connect. It's all here for you, food drinking friends under sky so blue.