Game-day tradition gets new name, locale
Two years after Hineygate lost its home at the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue, organizers of the Ohio State game-day party hope to replicate its success just down the road at the Varsity Club.
Marty Sims, who created and ran the event for 26 years in the Holiday Inn parking lot, has been hired to manage the Varsity Club?s outdoor entertainment before, during and after Ohio State?s home football games.
"We want the same party atmosphere," said Sims, former food and beverage manager for the hotel, which was purchased by Ohio State in 2009 and converted into student housing.
"We're pretty much duplicating what we did before."
Sims has booked the Danger Brothers, the central Ohio band that performed at Hineygate for most of its run, to perform on the Varsity Club's outdoor stage in a parking lot behind the building, starting with the team's home opener on Sept. 3 against Akron.
"It's kind of a great tradition, and it will be the same - just moved about 150 feet east," said Dave Hessler, lead guitarist and band founder.
What will have to change is the name.
Radio station WTVN-AM (610), which owns the rights to Hineygate, won't be involved in the Varsity Club venture. WLVQ-FM (96.3) will be the broadcasting sponsor of the new event, Hessler said.
Sims said the gathering will probably be called the Crank It Up party, which the Varsity Club already uses.
From 1984 to 2008, Hineygate was a collaboration between WTVN and the former Holiday Inn, at 328 W. Lane Ave. Sims was part of the effort from the beginning, organizing a staff of up to 100 for the event, which drew crowds of 10,000 to 15,000 over the course of a game day.
On game days, WTVN would broadcast from the hotel.
Hineygate admission was free, but a portion of the proceeds from food and alcohol sales ? $650,000 over the lifetime of the event, Sims said ? was donated to central Ohio charities, including Charity Newsies and the Hannah Neil Center for Children.
The Varsity Club event will also be free, and the charity donations will be revived, he said.
After Ohio State's purchase of the hotel sent the event packing two years ago, Sims and the Danger Brothers set up shop at the retail store Across the Field, on Olentangy River Road near Ackerman Road, but the venue's distance from Ohio Stadium kept crowds small.
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