In New York City, Every Game's a Home Game

When I moved from my native Nashville, TN -- a straight shot down 65 with a quick right at I-20 to Tuscaloosa -- to New York City, I was apprehensive about the separation. I knew I would miss elaborate game day meals at the Tri Delt house followed by a stroll among friends' tailgates on the quad. Of course I would miss pumping my shaker in the air to the beat of Yea Alabama! and 90,000 passionate voices lifting a heavenly Roll Tide Roll to the skies. I knew I would miss Alabama football.

I just had no idea how much.

My first week in New York City in August 2006 was enough to know I would need to hook myself up to a Crimson Tide IV to survive living so far away. Luckily, thanks to the superior networking and organization of Huston Stewart, Heath Terry, and the other Alabama Alumni Association folks, we've got the most active alumni chapter behind only Birmingham.

Now in my fourth football season in the city, we have a new home bar for game watching. We will show up in droves to eat nachos, drink whiskey, and shout Roll Tide every Saturday this fall, and our business is a hot commodity. The Ainsworth owners approached us as they planned their new venue in Chelsea, knowing they would secure a packed house fourteen Saturdays this year.

Every alumni association of a notable team has a designated gameday bar. I waitress at the Penn State bar, and Saturday after the Bama game, I'll meet a friend at the LSU bar. The Ohio State bar has the best wings in the city, and the Georgia bar is in one of my favorite neighborhoods for going out.

What makes New York City gamedays so worthwhile is that every week it's like we play at home. Whether the Tide is at the Georgia Dome, in Tuscaloosa against Arkansas, or on the road in Lexington, KY, we're parked on the same bar stools. We took the same subway and walked the same blocks to order from the same waitress with the same friends. The community we establish and enjoy every fall is singularly special.

To be in Tuscaloosa or South Bend or College Station on gameday is an irreplaceable experience. There is no substitute and no sweeter satisfaction to be sure, but there's also no other city that lets displaced alumni savor a home game simulation quite like New York.