Saints/Colts Game Great For City, Bad For Logistics

When the New Orleans Saints announced they would be headed to Millsaps for training camp a few months ago, the city of Jackson was most certainly excited.  And with a preseason game with the Indianapolis Colts already scheduled for August 26th to cap off the Saints stay here in the Capital City, Jackson had finally arrived as a premier sports market…until August 26th. 

Long traffic lines to Memorial Stadium, at the Memorial Stadium ticket gates, and inside Memorial Stadium, led to what most people who were at the game describe as mass chaos.  The official ticket count for the game read over 58,000 to the 60,000 seat stadium.  And with many entrances to the stadium not open because of rennovations, a spot of bad weather, and the in depth pat-down method the NFL requires, it’s somewhat underdstandable as to why the process to get into the game wasn’t the quickest. 

But personally, I headed out to Memorial after the 6:00 newscast.  It was 6:40 when I left the station, took Fortifcation to West Street to get to Memorial.  I arrived at 7:05 PM, and it took me until 7:35 to get parked in the media parking lot.  So even arriving 1 hour and 5 minutes after the game started, it still took me half an hour to get to my parking space.  To me, it didn’t seeem like the setup was to blame for the delay, but rather the folks working the parking gates.  And it didin’t seem to be the number of people working, just the lack of concern for motorists trying to find out where to park. 

I stopped at the first entrance on West Street to see if I could take that route to get to the media parking lot.  I rolled down my window to talk to the four people standing at the gate, but they all were turned towards the stadium, and didn’t bother to even look at me, the road, or the mile long traffic line piling up behind them.  I proceeded to the next parking gate where I wated for roughly 15 minutes, until the crew working that entrance finally directed all traffic before me to their correct location. 

Inside I was met by groups of angry fans who had just arrived the same time as me after hours upon hours of waiting.  I proceeded to the press box and watched the end of the 2nd quarter, and went down on the field for the beginning of the third. 

When I left at the middle of the third quarter to go get the 10 o’clock show ready, I was met with even more logistical problems.  As I pulled out of the media parking lot to the exit, it was blocked with a barricade, and no one was around.  I finally spotted the young man working the lot, staring blankly at the outside of Memorial Stadium, his back to the lot.  So I rolled down my window and yelled in his direction…a slight turn of acknowledegement.  So I yelled again, “HEY!”  Finally, he slowly turned around and walked toward the barricade and moved it.  I asked which way I needed to go to exit the Stadium parking grounds, and he waived his hand in some non-descript direction.  As I left, I could only think, “What a dissapointment.”

Growing up in New Orleans, I have been to many Saints games in the past, both at the Superdome and elsewhere, and never once have I seen the amount of logistical problems that I saw here in Jackson Saturday night.  As a sportscaster now, I truly look forward to the team returning for training camp next year, and possibly having another game at Memorial Stadium.  But as a sports fan, I sure hope Memorial Stadium gets it’s issues resolved.

1. The logistical nightmare fo the Colts / Saints game are two fold.

   First the stadium is not suited to accomadate the 60,000 fans that were there. There is not enough booths for food vendors and the isle ways are way too narrow. The parking and infrastructure (roads) are not equipped to handle that type of traffic.

   Secondly, I knew this ahead of time, I left early and still found myself in a long line about 45 minutes from kickoff. Only some creative driving and parking instructions from my son helped us see the kickoff.

   Fans need to know that Jackson is not equipped to handle such a big event so in the future leave about 3-4 hours before kickoff in order to be there on time.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/05  at  04:37 PM
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