Tents, camping chairs, grills, team flags, beer cans, blaring radio broadcasts, satellite TVs and thousands of cheering college football fans wearing their teams’ colors set the scene at the Iowa-Iowa State football game.

Along with an almost doubled city population and a sold-out crowd of fanatic football fans filling Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Ames was also home to thousands of tailgaters before, during and after the game.

But for football fans tailgating during the game, there was very little police presence.

“To be honest, we just don’t have the manpower [to police everyone tailgating],” said Ames Police Sgt. Mark Wheeler.

Tailgating has been an ISU football tradition for as long as many Cyclone fans can remember, and for thousands of fans, it remains one of the most important Cyclone traditions at the university.

“Tailgating is all about the atmosphere,” said Cyclone fan and Ames community member Maureen Schmidt.

“The people that come out make the whole thing so much fun … it’s just a good time all around.”

Schmidt says her family has been tailgating at every home football game for “what seems to be forever” and makes tailgating at ISU football games an all-day, family event.

Despite the police department making more arrests than a usual night and several noise and parking complaints, Wheeler said, overall, Saturday went “very smoothly.”

“With the nice weather on Saturday, and especially considering the number of people in Ames, it was a really nice day,” Wheeler said.

“There were over 52,000 people at the game and over 30,000 people outside in the parking lot tailgating,” he said.

“Plus, Iowa State won.”

Because of several preventative measures the police department took, as well as a lot more police officers on duty throughout the day, incidents were kept to a minimum, Wheeler said.

“We put together a party response team to go to parties before we got complaints,” he said.

The team clarified what some of the city’s laws are in regards to alcohol and noise, and what the police department’s expectations were to people throwing parties, Wheeler said.

“Walking around with open alcohol is against the law, and we strongly discourage it, making people pour it out,” he said.

Fans of both sides agreed tailgating in Ames was different than in Iowa City.

Tim Kasperbauer, a Hawkeye fan and Sioux City resident, said Ames is a much better place to tailgate, mainly because of the space each school allocates for tailgating.

“In Iowa City, there’s not a specific place for tailgating like in Ames, just a bunch of little lots spread out all over the place. At Iowa State, fans can all be in the same place, and there’s a lot more room,” he said.

“Iowa State fans know how to tailgate.”