It is mid-day Saturday and the Carter-Finley Stadium parking lots sit barren. The only things disturbing the grass are an occasional bird and a soft breeze. Although the atmosphere hints toward an uneventful day — it isn’t — it is the first day of the 2006 football season.

The familiar crowd of fans up since dawn, covered head to toe in red paint, chugging beer and playing games is nowhere to be seen. The smell of roasting pigs, grilled hot dogs and bratwurst that choked the air in these lots during game days years ago are nowhere to be found.

The strictly enforced restrictions placed on tailgaters as a reaction to a tailgate shooting almost two years ago have delayed this game-day atmosphere until just hours before kickoff.

The University-induced policies ended the tradition of all-day tailgating by permitting fans into the parking lots just four hours before the game and disallowing kegs and loud music.

Many fans who strive for that atmosphere have found ways around the rules by tailgating in other areas. The large grass field on the corner of Hillsborough Street and Blue Ridge Road began filling up much earlier than the stadium lots.

“We came here because we can come out here at eight in the morning if we want to,” Liz Groff, a senior in communication, said. “If you want to tailgate early, you will tailgate — just not near Carter-Finley Stadium.”

Students from Appalachian State University, such as Drew Aaron, a junior in business management, and Zack Scott, a senior in exercise science, experienced a different tailgating atmosphere than they are used to.

“N.C. State has so many rules,” Aaron said. “App. State has no rules.”

Scott agreed with Aaron, saying he couldn’t figure out why kegs weren’t allowed.

“If you can sit here and drink a beer, why can’t you have a keg?” Scott added.

Reed Johnson, a junior in sports management, has tailgated with Aaron and Scott in both Raleigh and Boone.

“I enjoyed the game at Appalachian State more than I did here,” Johnson said.

Another reason fans had trouble tailgating was the lack of parking permits handed out and the lack of outdoor toilets provided throughout the parking lots.

Lines began to stretch at the few outdoor toilets scattered over the lots, creating problems for fans like Sarah Maness, a sophomore in biological sciences, who was waiting in line for the bathroom.

“We’ve been waiting here a long time,” Maness said, “At least half an hour.”

One of the parking lots closest to the stadium on the fairground side of Trinity Road was not even half full two hours before kickoff. Fans that didn’t get parking passes were left to tailgate away from the stadium.

Corey Gooden, a senior in paper science, who received a pass, expressed his lack of understanding for the parking pass situation.

“We got a whole lot of empty [spaces] and nobody got parking passes,” Gooden said.