High-tech Tour in Motor City

It's no secret that Detroit-area football fans – whether they be rooting for the Lions, Wolverines, Spartans or the hundreds of other colleges or high schools in the area – take their pre- and post-game tailgating seriously. So it's not surprising that Michigan is a top state for sales of TracVision A7 mobile satellite TV systems and DIRECTV Total Choice Mobile programming.

But why the low ranking in the "America's Best Football Tailgating Cities" Index? According to Joe Cahn, one of the professional tailgaters that helped KVH Industries and DIRECTV create the national ranking of tailgating friendliness, Motown's #31 ranking out of 32 U.S. cities has nothing to do with Detroit or its ardent fans and everything to do with the tailgating restrictions at Ford Field and the municipal-owned parking lots surrounding the stadium. According to Cahn, the self-proclaimed "Commissioner of Tailgating," some of the best pre-game "tailgating" in Detroit isn't in the parking lot at all but at Hockeytown Cafe, immediately across from the stadium.

A Detroit TV cameraman gets a birds-eye view of TracVision in preparation for an "Ultimate Tailgater" segment on NBC 4