I am sure many here have seen this, but this photo seems very informative on the waste of space that is parking lots.Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia has a capacity of 100,000 and instead of being surrounded by parking, it’s surrounded by parks.
This cricket ground is around twice the seating capacity of the stadium in the post. America really fucked up.
Baseball was a secondary goal in the construction of Dodger Stadium. The primary goal was to get rid of a bunch of brown people who lived too close to downtown for whitey to handle.
When you understand that, the giant parking lot makes tons of sense.
My city has a rail station right in front of the stadium and barely anyone uses it, not even during big games/events.
Look up the largest stadium in the world, Strahov in Prague, that hosted the Communist “Spartakiad” parade every May 1st. Almost every performer and attendee arrived via the high-capacity tram and bus terminal Smyčka Dlabačov, often after taking a train and the metro. As a result, the parking lot is absolutely tiny.
If you want to feel bad and hate cars even more than you did before, look up aerial views of “SeaWorld” and see how much space the actual sea life has there versus the parking space all around them.
Even with that many cars, these sprawling parking lots are a waste of space. You can cut down the parking area by a huge amount by building a few multi story parking garages.
Last stadium I went to did it pretty simple: train station next to venue, parking cost somewhere between 15 and 25 euros. They still have 2400 parking spaces next to their stadium that seats 55000, but if you put parking at a premium and offer an alternative, many people will just choose not to come by car. There are more parking spaces, but they’re basically spread around the city so they can also be used when you’re not visiting the stadium and are build next to public transport (or have dedicated buses for large crowds).
Probably for the best too when it comes to sports, half the sports fans I see enter stadiums like these seem to be drunk before they even reach the entrance. I wouldn’t want to be on the road after a match with those people going home…
Mom says it’s my turn to repost this tomorrow.
If you’re ever in Chicago go to Wrigley. It’s amazing what a sports stadium can be. For real, you get off the train, walk like a block, go through the entrance, and you can see the field. It’s amazing and every new stadium should use it as an example.
That’s how most stadiums are here in Australia, you just gotta use public transport. I cannot imagine the hell it would be trying to get out of a car park like the one in this post.
@PhilthyHabits @JackbyDev Melbourne’s big stadiums do have substantial car parks, but they are also a short walk from at least 1 central train station with ~10 platforms.
@PhilthyHabits @JackbyDev What’s my point? Australian stadiums are better than the worst examples from the US, but they aren’t fantastic.
It is hell, and in the US people still defend it like it’s the best way to do it😖
Same in NZ
Most stadiums don’t have a public carpark - or a very small one. Free busses with your ticket.
When everyone tries to leave at once it’s just about the worst driving scenario possible.
That gives me a notion. Maybe it’s possible to get team owners on board supporting public transit, by pointing out that the reason people don’t stay for the whole game is to avoid traffic.
Nah team owners don’t care. They’re only making money from the tv deal, concessions and gate fees. They cut off concessions before the end of the game, tickets are bought before the game and the TV deal doesn’t matter what traffic looks like. There’s no advantage for owners to keep people at the games longer.
Adelaide used to have a shit 1970s style football stadium in the burbs. It wasn’t serviced by rail because it was in one of our first huge lifeless US style suburban developments. Cheap reclaimed swamp land, car-centric, no mixed zoning, no character, no local services. The stadium only appeared to have a green surround because they were too cheap to seal the car park.
Special bus routes ran on game days but busses suck compared with trains for moving high volumes. I think most people drove. I went to a few games and concerts there. Crowds were notorious for leaving the football games in the middle of the last quarter because it took so long to get out of the car parks and surrounding roads. Crowds generally maxed out at 55k. Adelaide oval is only a couple of thousand less capacity and surrounded by parklands in the middle of the city, with a foot bridge to the train station across the river. I don’t know why that took decades to figure out.
Same with the stadiums in Portland. The energy on the trains can be a blast. It’s part of the whole experience. Unless you’re exhausted from the event. Then it can be a drag sometimes
