When Leanne was 12 years old and heard that her tailgating group would have to degrade themselves to tailgating with a truck instead of their usual van, she was devastated. Leanne went to her first New England Patriots game when she was 8 years old and it all went downhill from there. Ever since then she has been attending tailgating parties and hanging out in the parking lot before and after games.
Her father holds season tickets to Gillette Stadium and half the fun of the game is the pregame in the parking lot itself. A group of 12 people ride in a Patriots-themed van from Cape Cod but the van will attract up to 200 hundred people for pregame festivities.
The OG Patriots squad started the tradition in the early 1990s and have since gotten a new van. The pregame team goes to every home game in their van in Foxboro whether they go into the actual stadium or not.
The police officers on horses always find a way to get in contact with the van team. A few years ago when Gillette changed their parking lot, the security went to long lengths to find the van, even sending helicopters overhead to find the van.
The group has a "Reverend" who organizes pregame traditions with shots and sending spectators into Gillette with a "prayer." This reverend was even ordained to perform a superfan's wedding.
The pregame team also has a grillmaster, a coordinator and a classic rock playlist that plays the likes of AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Ozzy and Aerosmith. On the way back the van will blast Bob Seger's greatest hits for no particular reason other than tradition.
Sounds like a pretty good time.