Saturday, May 26, 2007

Post-Game 48 Thread: Parking Still Ain't Easy (Dodgers 9, Cubs 8)

Dear Bill Plaschke:

Cubs fans travel. And they're everywhere. Which explains why last night's game, though far from a sellout at a 46,011 attendance, was full of energy on both sides as the stadium was pretty crowded with Cubs and Dodgers jerseys. And the atmosphere was great at the stadium, the teams scored a lot of runs to keep the crowd happy, and the evening was another beautiful one at the Ravine.

And then comes trying to exit the parking lot. Disaster. Parking lot attendants in the inner ring (we were in Lot G, directly behind the scoreboards) could not effectively merge cars from the lot into the inner ring, causing havoc for pedestrians and cars. It took 20 minutes to exit the stadium through the Golden State Freeway gate--not even the gate we would have liked to have used, but the nearest and ONLY option under the new McCourt system--despite the fact that the gate was far closer to us than the Sunset Gate through which we entered.

Once outside the stadium, navigating back leftward toward Echo Park was treacherous, and the traffic down Scott Avenue (now that the Scott Gate is opened for exiting on weekends as well) was bumper to bumper for another 10-15 minutes, before we could turn left on Echo Park.

Bill, you should get yourself out to one of the remaining two weekend games to experience this for yourself. The new system is on par with prior years. And it costs $5 more this year. That math doesn't add up.

INSIGNIFICANTIA:

  • 1 wins the hat shuffle.
  • Coca-Cola fan wins the trivia question.
  • Somebody stop the Universal marketing department before they submit the crowd to another painfully easy movie-related question ("In Jurassic Park, what were they cloning: dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, or [something else equally ludicrous that I can't remember]?"). It's insulting, and worse to watch Nomar have to read the stupid question in the first place.
  • Blue wins the dot race.
  • Five beers consumed, one dog. Plus nachos, two bags of peanuts, one bag of pumpkin seeds (brought in), and a handful of sunflower seeds (also brought in).

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think it was a sabre-tooth tiger in the Universal quiz, but I'm not 100% sure.

Steve Sax said...

I think you're correct, Steve. Man, those questions are absurd.

Unknown said...

As for the parking situation... getting into the stadium was a breeze. My friends and I were stuck in line waiting to pay for a few minutes, but once we got past the booths, getting into our spot was pretty easy.

Steve Sax said...

I agree with you Steve, getting in was the easiest time I'd had this year, out of six visits this season. We did have preferred parking though and that does help.

However, getting out sucked.