FanPost

The worst day in Dodger Stadium history?

This comes from the web site www.laobserved.com:

Opening day will be remembered as the day the McCourts' incompetence, which is effectively obscured when the team plays well, finally became impossible to ignore. They are in a jam. There is no PR solution to it. They need to admit their grievous error, and fix it fast.

What could all the angst be about? Well, it's...parking.

If you've even been to Chavez Ravine -- especially that first visit -- it can be pretty confusing. You can enter the park from many ways -- but so many want to take the 'easy' route (Stadium Way, from the Pasadena Freeway) that's usually grid-lock, even on normal game days. There are other back ways, many not even marked anymore, since the 1962 directional signs  "Stadium" (in the middle of a baseball) have all fallen down, painted with graffiti, etc. The city has never replaced the missing signs.

The massive lot is confusing from the getgo, but at least up until yesterday, once you entered the lot, you could park in any 'unreserved' area.(Lots close to the gates are for season ticketholders, employees, players, and a host of other VIP's.) But now, the Dodgers say certain ticket-holders can only enter certain entrances, and you can only park in a certain 'quadrant.'
(And the price went up from $10 to $15!)

more from laobserved.com:

But at game time the entrance was still hopelessly clogged, and we could see cars moving around even in the fourth inning. "Hundreds of cars were still lined up at least a quarter-mile outside the Sunset-Exit A gate," the Times reported. "Frustrations were rising, especially as some fans were told they could not park in their usual spots, in order to comply with the new 'controlled zone parking,' which is being implemented this season."

Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts, post-game: "On the phone with my brother and father right now - both with 20-plus years of experience negotiating Dodger Stadium traffic. They are still in the stadium parking lot, having moved 'a foot and a half in 35 minutes.' My brother calls it 'truly a disaster' and 'the worst I've seen it,' even accounting for it being Opening Day."

Parking Hell?

Really, really bad -- from Tribco West:

Martha Ustick of Long Beach, a 27-year season-ticket holder, called it "the worst parking fiasco I've ever seen." Ustick said the line before the game was so backed up that she had to park near an elementary school well outside the stadium grounds for fear that she would miss the first few innings.

Cindy Myers, 50, of Yorba Linda, who said she has attended more than a dozen opening days and "never ever" missed a first pitch or ceremony, breathed a sigh of relief when she got to the Stadium Way exit off the 5 Freeway at 11:30 a.m. But she was still bottled up in the parking lot two hours later when she heard the crowd roar as pitcher Jason Schmidt belted a third-inning home run.

By the time Myers got to her seat, it was the middle of the fourth inning, and she was practically in tears. She planned to demand a refund for the game -- and maybe even for the rest of her family's 15-game mini-season pass.

"I don't care if I ever go to another Dodger game," she said. "I can't imagine going there again on Wednesday night."

Throughout the afternoon, radio traffic reporters warned commuters that the parking problems at Dodger Stadium were reverberating throughout the freeway system. It only got worse when the game ended as the afternoon commute set in.

So, when it seems that it's bad at Clark & Addison, remember -- it could be worse.

And, other reports said -- the concession stands ran out of Dodger Dogs. (How do you run out of hot dogs on Opening Day? Perhaps the gluttons in the all-you-can-eat section in RF ate them all.)

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