Fewer than 100 cars were parked in the newly implemented student-only tailgate area near the tennis courts on Saturday - a noticeable difference from past years, when about 400 cars and thousands of people would fill the area on football game days.

"They've effectively killed tailgate," biochemistry senior Shankar Arul said while he tailgated at the tennis courts. "There's no one here. It's just not as intense as it used to be. It's pretty sad for a Big Ten school."

It was the first tailgate for the student-only parking system, created to reduce problems with binge drinking and unruly behavior at tailgates. The tennis courts near Chestnut Street and Wilson Road are a student-only tailgate area.

Students must register in advance to receive one of the 350 available $15 parking passes, which are distributed through a lottery.

ASMSU organized the program, which brought a disc jockey and new concessions to the tennis courts, in collaboration with the MSU Board of Trustees and other campus departments.

Instead of the hundreds of cars that used to line up early in the morning, the area was empty at about 7 a.m., MSU parking attendant Mary Lou Schaibly said.

"It was dead - it wasn't busy," she said of the tennis courts when they opened.

Andrew Bell, vice chairperson for external affairs for ASMSU's Student Assembly, said he recognized some people didn't like the new rules, but didn't think every tailgate would be so largely affected.

"Folks will realize that, 'Hey, we gotta do this. This is the system,'" Bell said. "I know they weren't packed full, but then again, they only had a couple days set up for the lottery. I don't think it had as much to do with the rules that changed but that it was Labor Day weekend."

Not everything went according to plan, Bell said. Sports-related contests didn't come together in time for this tailgate, but they should happen in the future, he said. Connor Glosser of MSU Concessions said concession sales were slow.

The decreased attendance reduced the likelihood of fights and curtailed alcohol abuse, but at the same time, it wasn't as enjoyable, said Detective Mark Bowser of the Ingham County Sheriff's Department.

"It's unfortunate that it reduced attendance on the tennis courts," Bowser said. "It isn't as fun out here. The tennis courts are supposed to be fun. That's where all the kids go."

Some students said they enjoyed the tailgating atmosphere.

"Everyone's responsible so far," said general business administration and pre-law sophomore Daniel Muskovitz, adding that he and his friends were having fun - sober. "No one's out of control."

The new regulations didn't stop 2000 MSU graduate Jeff Miller from tailgating at the tennis courts. Instead, he got a student to buy a parking pass for him.

Although he said he still had fun at the tailgate, Miller doesn't agree with the new rules.

"Don't say 'only students' because that's not addressing the problem at hand - underage drinking," Miller said. "What's the problem with alumni?"

Not all alumni, especially in their first years out of college, can afford to donate to the university to tailgate at the alumni lots, he said.

Most calls Bell received about the tailgate were from alumni, Bell said.

"This tennis courts thing isn't to kick them out," he said. "It's to give students their fair shot. I don't like the idea of students being blamed for 100 percent of the problem when we're not 100 percent of the population in the area.

"The students need a chance to prove to everyone that they're not the ones causing the problem, and the only way to prove it is to give them their own area."