Blue Lot Oversold

[Papagn78]

Very frustrating experience yesterday and poor job by game day ops. I have had season tickets for almost 20 years now and have parked in the Blue lot for the majority of that time with my Dad who has had tickets since '76. Due to my son's football practice we were only able to get to the lot ~30min prior to kickoff, later then we would prefer but should still give us enough time to get in our seats, eat and get settled prior to kickoff. As we sit through normal traffic including busses and fans crossing we come to a complete stop with about 6 cars in front of the Blue lot entrance. Nobody is moving. After what felt like 20mins the police officers start turning cars back, one-by-one people are now making u-turns in the middle of the road and heading away from the stadium only to sit in more traffic as they backtrack. As we approach we are told the lot is full and we need to head back to the tan lot which is a pretty far hike back. Completely unacceptable for a lot we prepaid for. What got us even more fired up was walking through the Blue Lot and seeing plenty of spaces to park cars.

This is how you lose fans.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Complain to the Athletic Department. Also, if you get the fan survey, complain again. Follow up on your complaints.

One thing they've done this year, don't know if they did it prior, is that they're parking staff in the Blue Lot behind Yurcak Field. So you lose parking area there. Also, down at the front, over near the exit to walk to the stadium, there's a muddy section that they have not been parking cars in when it's wet. Which they did yesterday, there were some nasty muddy areas with standing water which would have been an absolute bitch to be parked on or around. So they left that area open, although I think they could have fitted cars around it better.

@MrsScrew any other advice you can give him?

 

[bac2therac]

Very frustrating experience yesterday and poor job by game day ops. I have had season tickets for almost 20 years now and have parked in the Blue lot for the majority of that time with my Dad who has had tickets since '76. Due to my son's football practice we were only able to get to the lot ~30min prior to kickoff, later then we would prefer but should still give us enough time to get in our seats, eat and get settled prior to kickoff. As we sit through normal traffic including busses and fans crossing we come to a complete stop with about 6 cars in front of the Blue lot entrance. Nobody is moving. After what felt like 20mins the police officers start turning cars back, one-by-one people are now making u-turns in the middle of the road and heading away from the stadium only to sit in more traffic as they backtrack. As we approach we are told the lot is full and we need to head back to the tan lot which is a pretty far hike back. Completely unacceptable for a lot we prepaid for. What got us even more fired up was walking through the Blue Lot and seeing plenty of spaces to park cars.

This is how you lose fans.

This is unacceptable

Rutgers needs to refund you for this game

 

[Big East Beast]

I’m 20+ years also. Something similar happened to me last year in Yellow for one of the night games. It took me 2.5 hrs to drive through the traffic from LI, so I didn’t arrive until almost kickoff.

They said the lots were full but meanwhile, I could SEE there were spots still available to park. The attendants were adamant about not letting me in.

I wound up having to park in the tan lot - despite the blue lot having MANY MORE OPEN SPOTS and had to walk from well past the golf course, livid.

Much of it was due to the frustration of the trip I had just taken but it was still very frustrating and the nonchalant “sucks for you, I can’t do anything to help you” attitude was really disappointing.

I understand it’s a bit difficult to manage because people park in dumb ways. They said this year they said they weren’t going to oversell the lots. I’m not even sure why that was ever a thing, but it’s unethical.

With all of the last minute decisions on game-times, soaring costs of going to games and money grabs w/seat licenses etc it’s really hard to pony up year after year without feeling a bit like a sucker. My brother who was also a 20+ yr season ticket holder and his friends all finally just said screw it, I can get tix cheaper via stub hub and better seats to boot, so why bother?

The only time it “pays off” is when the team is good and demand out weighs supply but it’s painful in the mediocre/bad years.

 

[Terry_2426]

 

[ScarletDave]

This happened to us in yellow lot in the 2006 Louisville game. Thursday night traffic we got to the lot minutes before kickoff. The parking attendant stopped the 1 car in front of us saying the lot was full, when we could see clearly there was space for probably 10 more cars along the fence. The guy got out of the car in front, moved the cone over, blocked the attendant, and let his car and us in. When we got out who was it, Ray Rice’s father who moved the cone and his family was in the car that got in with us. Lol

 

[jtung230]

I don’t understand how they can not let you in if you have a pass. Call everyone.

 

[Knight Shift]

Complain to the Athletic Department. Also, if you get the fan survey, complain again. Follow up on your complaints.

One thing they've done this year, don't know if they did it prior, is that they're parking staff in the Blue Lot behind Yurcak Field. So you lose parking area there. Also, down at the front, over near the exit to walk to the stadium, there's a muddy section that they have not been parking cars in when it's wet. Which they did yesterday, there were some nasty muddy areas with standing water which would have been an absolute bitch to be parked on or around. So they left that area open, although I think they could have fitted cars around it better.

@MrsScrew any other advice you can give him?

That was probably part of the problem- we stood there with you, @MrsScrew and @RUScrew85 , and by my rough estimate, that was about 5-15 cars worth of spots. Now, someone in operations should have made a contingency for that besides the tan lot. And parking staff in the Blue Lot is nonsense. Why not have THEM park in the tan lot and shuttle them in in groups? There are ways to fix these types of problems. Fans like @e5fdny and others who have large "event" management experience could offer their assistance.

I went through a similar thing during our oldest kid's graduation. The parking people, and perhaps the police officer were outright rude and said "you should have planned ahead and left early" when I asked if I could slide over to the yellow lot from the far right lane. Rutgers gonna Rutgers, but things like this are why some fans don't come back and/or why the stands are not full at kickoff.

 

[ScarletKid2008]

This exact thing happened to us for a night game last season. Arrived about 200 yards from the blue lot entrance 30 min before kickoff and were turned away. It’s not right to do for the donation required for the right to park there.

 

[LeapinLou]

I hadn't heard about this. Completely unacceptable to sell more passes than you can accommodate.

 

[RU#1fan]

I hadn't heard about this. Completely unacceptable to sell more passes than you can accommodate.

They have taken notes from the Airlines.
Sell more than supply you have and bank on people not $howing.

 

[jtung230]

It’s interesting because during Ash, people complaint they undersold the lots to get more donations.

 

[e5fdny]

That was probably part of the problem- we stood there with you, @MrsScrew and @RUScrew85 , and by my rough estimate, that was about 5-15 cars worth of spots. Now, someone in operations should have made a contingency for that besides the tan lot. And parking staff in the Blue Lot is nonsense. Why not have THEM park in the tan lot and shuttle them in in groups? There are ways to fix these types of problems. Fans like @e5fdny and others who have large "event" management experience could offer their assistance.

Pretty sure that is what Rutgers does with the battalion level of police they choose to have on gameday.

Not sure if it's actually the Blue, Tan or another Lot but they do the shuttle (with a regular RU bus) thing for those folks.

 

[RUScrew85]

That was probably part of the problem- we stood there with you, @MrsScrew and @RUScrew85 , and by my rough estimate, that was about 5-15 cars worth of spots. Now, someone in operations should have made a contingency for that besides the tan lot. And parking staff in the Blue Lot is nonsense. Why not have THEM park in the tan lot and shuttle them in in groups? There are ways to fix these types of problems. Fans like @e5fdny and others who have large "event" management experience could offer their assistance.

I went through a similar thing during our oldest kid's graduation. The parking people, and perhaps the police officer were outright rude and said "you should have planned ahead and left early" when I asked if I could slide over to the yellow lot from the far right lane. Rutgers gonna Rutgers, but things like this are why some fans don't come back and/or why the stands are not full at kickoff.

Rutgers gonna Rutgers.

 

[rutgersfan1766]

Rutgers gonna Rutgers.

You guys make it sound like this ONLY happens at Rutgers.

 

[Knight Shift]

You guys make it sound like this ONLY happens at Rutgers.

Well, that is our worldview. And we have not seen it at other schools or heard from other fans. Wisconsin went fine. Bought my pass, we parked no problem, no hassles from parking attendants. Different layout completely, but just saying. And part of the point is if this happens at Penn State, Ohio State Michigan, fans of winning programs will tolerate a level of inconvenience. When Rutgers, which has been anything but a winning program for almost 10 years, they need to do everything they can to bring back fans.

 

[letitrip2]

Been in the blue lot for 30 years - never once had a problem getting in and ever since they got rid of the ATV security forces it is a great experience. A game like this you would expect a full lot - and the spots left open are usually from people that show up for the tailgate only and leave before kick off - that happens often. Now leaving the lot for a big game is a different story - chill and plan on an hour wait. This is called Big Time college football - happens almost everywhere

 

[MrsScrew]

part of the blue lot problem was the front of the blue lot still had mud pits, so there was a good 15-20 spots that could not have cars. Then a player family set up a giant tent taking 4-6 spots & Parking argued with them that spots were for cars not for tents but somehow lost that argument, they then made them move it off of the fence for an unknown reason which then meant they had a tent in 8 spots. So close to 30 spots in the first 3 rows were not used.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

You guys make it sound like this ONLY happens at Rutgers.

it shouldn't happen ANYWHERE.

If Rutgers does this right if we see other schools' fans complaining we can say.. that never happens at Rutgers.

Instead.. we got this crap... again and again. Has happened for years. Like the 2006 story... my guess is they may have "fixed" this or lessened its affect but during this world-wide competence crisis things have slipped.. how they park.. how they handle problems.. how they distribute authority to address problems as they arise... things are bad all over and getting worse. How about we begin to end that and have teh parking for the Maryland game go perfectly? How about someone from Rutgers say, enough is enough, I'm getting this done.

 

[BROTHERSKINNY]

Very frustrating experience yesterday and poor job by game day ops. I have had season tickets for almost 20 years now and have parked in the Blue lot for the majority of that time with my Dad who has had tickets since '76. Due to my son's football practice we were only able to get to the lot ~30min prior to kickoff, later then we would prefer but should still give us enough time to get in our seats, eat and get settled prior to kickoff. As we sit through normal traffic including busses and fans crossing we come to a complete stop with about 6 cars in front of the Blue lot entrance. Nobody is moving. After what felt like 20mins the police officers start turning cars back, one-by-one people are now making u-turns in the middle of the road and heading away from the stadium only to sit in more traffic as they backtrack. As we approach we are told the lot is full and we need to head back to the tan lot which is a pretty far hike back. Completely unacceptable for a lot we prepaid for. What got us even more fired up was walking through the Blue Lot and seeing plenty of spaces to park cars.

This is how you lose fans.

Not to add salt to the wound but we left for the hike to the stadium right about the time you were getting there. I was using the porta John’s right at the entrance to the blue lot and there were plenty of spaces open. In fact I remarked to my friend ” I guess we aren’t selling out.” Rutgers game day operations really has to get its act together.

 

[m1ipabrams]

Parking team in the Blue lot did a really poor job. We got there around 9am and the line of cars to park was out to the road. Why, because they were parking one row at a time and letting people turn around to back in. They also were leaving way too much room between cars, mostly because the people backing in weren't following the directions of the guy trying to park them. They could easily have sped up the process by starting one row, and then starting the next row a few cars later. There was plenty of manpower available to do this.

Anyone know what the holdup was after the game? I don't think any cars moved for a good 30-40 minutes after we got to our car(stayed to the cannon) and then suddenly started to move at reasonable pace. I think it is because they have to keep stopping traffic to let people walk to the busses, but not sure.

 

[MrsScrew]

Parking team in the Blue lot did a really poor job. We got there around 9am and the line of cars to park was out to the road. Why, because they were parking one row at a time and letting people turn around to back in. They also were leaving way too much room between cars, mostly because the people backing in weren't following the directions of the guy trying to park them. They could easily have sped up the process by starting one row, and then starting the next row a few cars later. There was plenty of manpower available to do this.

Anyone know what the holdup was after the game? I don't think any cars moved for a good 30-40 minutes after we got to our car(stayed to the cannon) and then suddenly started to move at reasonable pace. I think it is because they have to keep stopping traffic to let people walk to the busses, but not sure.

After the game it's always because they hold traffic for pedestrians. Also, if you want to tailgate backing into your spot is really kind of important if you are in the front of the row.

 

[Scarlet16E]

They do have parking staff cars in the back area of blue and yellow. Makes no sense. They should be in a remote lot and shuttles to their lots in vans.

 

[letitrip2]

Parking team in the Blue lot did a really poor job. We got there around 9am and the line of cars to park was out to the road. Why, because they were parking one row at a time and letting people turn around to back in. They also were leaving way too much room between cars, mostly because the people backing in weren't following the directions of the guy trying to park them. They could easily have sped up the process by starting one row, and then starting the next row a few cars later. There was plenty of manpower available to do this.

Anyone know what the holdup was after the game? I don't think any cars moved for a good 30-40 minutes after we got to our car(stayed to the cannon) and then suddenly started to move at reasonable pace. I think it is because they have to keep stopping traffic to let people walk to the busses, but not sure.

Backing in is essential if you want to tailgate and you happen to be in the first row after an aisle. It was a big noon game - the crowded lots are a good thing.

 

[MrsScrew]

They do have parking staff cars in the back area of blue and yellow. Makes no sense. They should be in a remote lot and shuttles to their lots in vans.

The parking staff gets there at 4am. No one is shuttling them anywhere at that hour.

 

[jtung230]

The parking staff gets there at 4am. No one is shuttling them anywhere at that hour.

If they all get there at 4am, why not?

 

[bethlehemfan]

This should never happen. In black I’ve seen people tailgate in parking spots which 1) if you do that you’re an ahole and 2) should be policed End of rant.

 

[Jimpeg]

If they all get there at 4am, why not?

they should have the staff parking in the old alley section and walk over or in the silver / tan lot.. no reason staff should park in yellow/blue unless emergency vehicles...

 

[m1ipabrams]

Backing in is essential if you want to tailgate and you happen to be in the first row after an aisle. It was a big noon game - the crowded lots are a good thing.

I get the backing in, but at least part of the reason people are complaining about being turned away is that they did a poor job of keeping the cars tight when people backed in. probably because they were trying to keep up with the traffic coming in. parking two rows in a stagger would have addressed that.

 

[MrsScrew]

I get the backing in, but at least part of the reason people are complaining about being turned away is that they did a poor job of keeping the cars tight when people backed in. probably because they were trying to keep up with the traffic coming in. parking two rows in a stagger would have addressed that.

this works as long as it isn't a group looking to tailgate next to each other. But they could certainly have the group park and then park others behind them immediately .

 

[Local Shill]

The parking staff gets there at 4am. No one is shuttling them anywhere at that hour.

If they get there are 4 a.m. why do lots only officially open 5 hours before the game? What do they do between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m.

 

[bethlehemfan]

If they get there are 4 a.m. why do lots only officially open 5 hours before the game? What do they do between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m.

What the hell are they doing for 3 hours lol. They do nothing for the next 5 hours except stand around.

 

[MrsScrew]

If they get there are 4 a.m. why do lots only officially open 5 hours before the game? What do they do between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m.

What is written & what happens are 2 different things. People are in the Scarlet Lot at 4am. People in the blue lot as early as 530am...both no matter what time the game is.

 

[esway1]

I have neighbors that park in blue and the visit me in yellow and say "wow, not a lot of room here". I'll bet people in blue are just not use to parking so close and thats why they ran out of space.
Some will say it is the parking people's fault which is partly true but how many times are they going to argue with people to park tighter when every other week they don't need to.

 

[fischy5000]

We got to yellow later than usual (prob around 11:30/11:40am) this week and it was pretty much full (per attendants). Not sure if this is official but they started moving us into the seemingly landscaped grass of the visitors center at the corner (which seems like it is not officially part of the yellow lot?).
Seems like that would have been better backup option for those turned away from blue than going to tan.

 

[NiTeKnight]

Very frustrating experience yesterday and poor job by game day ops. I have had season tickets for almost 20 years now and have parked in the Blue lot for the majority of that time with my Dad who has had tickets since '76. Due to my son's football practice we were only able to get to the lot ~30min prior to kickoff, later then we would prefer but should still give us enough time to get in our seats, eat and get settled prior to kickoff. As we sit through normal traffic including busses and fans crossing we come to a complete stop with about 6 cars in front of the Blue lot entrance. Nobody is moving. After what felt like 20mins the police officers start turning cars back, one-by-one people are now making u-turns in the middle of the road and heading away from the stadium only to sit in more traffic as they backtrack. As we approach we are told the lot is full and we need to head back to the tan lot which is a pretty far hike back. Completely unacceptable for a lot we prepaid for. What got us even more fired up was walking through the Blue Lot and seeing plenty of spaces to park cars.

This is how you lose fans.

Also season tickets for 20+ years and were moved to the tan lot like you. It was quite a hike, and we missed a good part of the first quarter because of the extra 10-15 minutes to drive to and find the tan lot, get parked by an attendant, and walk the extra distance (over twice the distance Blue lot is from stadium). It was very frustrating.

 

[RCBeta79]

Very frustrating experience yesterday and poor job by game day ops. I have had season tickets for almost 20 years now and have parked in the Blue lot for the majority of that time with my Dad who has had tickets since '76. Due to my son's football practice we were only able to get to the lot ~30min prior to kickoff, later then we would prefer but should still give us enough time to get in our seats, eat and get settled prior to kickoff. As we sit through normal traffic including busses and fans crossing we come to a complete stop with about 6 cars in front of the Blue lot entrance. Nobody is moving. After what felt like 20mins the police officers start turning cars back, one-by-one people are now making u-turns in the middle of the road and heading away from the stadium only to sit in more traffic as they backtrack. As we approach we are told the lot is full and we need to head back to the tan lot which is a pretty far hike back. Completely unacceptable for a lot we prepaid for. What got us even more fired up was walking through the Blue Lot and seeing plenty of spaces to park cars.

This is how you lose fans.

Ugly. The Athletic Department should apologize, make it up to you, and investigate why the open spaces in the Blue Lot were not utilized.

Country Club Parking (CCP) has the parking contract, and it is on them.
They usually do a decent job, but the Athletic Department needs to fix this issue with CCP.

 

[Scarlet16E]

The parking staff gets there at 4am. No one is shuttling them anywhere at that hour.

I've seen them having group parking staff meetings (getting everyone ready for the day) sometimes when I arrive. Maybe some of them arrive at 4AM, but surely most of them arrive a bit later?
In any event they should be using a remote paring lot with a shuttle van for staff.
Someone suggested the "alley" area by the intramural fields - but anywhere remote would work.

This is obviously not an issue for most games, but we do need to plan for the program's continued improvement, and be ready to begin doing this when the lots are regularly full.

I will say that the guy who has been running the yellow lot parking for many years does a very good job of balancing various objectives (good tailgating spaces, and maximum cars parked (e.g. early arrivals get a bit more tailgating space and most late arrivals get packed in tighter).
One year a long time ago (during the Flood years) we had a guy known as the "parking Nazi". He was terrible.

 

[DJ Spanky]

One year a long time ago (during the Flood years) we had a guy known as the "parking Nazi". He was terrible.

I think I know who you're talking about: his actions for the Notre Dame game ended up with us losing 2 people from our tailgate.

 

[Local Shill]

What is written & what happens are 2 different things. People are in the Scarlet Lot at 4am. People in the blue lot as early as 530am...both no matter what time the game is.

Yes, I'm well aware of how early people arrive. I just mean if there are going to be employees there that early why does RU go through the cherade of saying 5 hours?