For 33 traffic from Central Ohio, what is the deal with trying to send people to Stimson Avenue? It's completely pointless. if you're parking by the river or the Convo, what could possibly be easier than just going to Richland? This makes no sense. For the opener, I tried to be nice and follow instructions but there was no real guidance after you got to Stimson. Plus if you find yourself on South Green Drive, you really have no easy way to get to the other side of Richland Avenue with the closure and construction. Since then, I go to Richland just as I always have and it's incredibly easy to get where I'm going.

Grass Parking Lot:

This is such a cluster. There have been good crowds for all home games and there is no organization for this parking lot. I understand when weeknight maction starts that it needs no real attention, but for big saturday crowds, someone should be guiding the vehicles or they should have drawn parking lines. This scramble that they currently employ is worse than Nelson Dining Hall circa 1991. (ok, I actually liked the dining hall scramble) I think the best solution is to at least draw parking lines for game days. I appreciate that there is space to spread out in this lot, but people are taking it a bit far.

Couldn't agree more. It's a total joke.

School takes up ton of space with those giant white tents.

How hard is it to number spaces for folks that purchase blue lot passes?

Or at worst, as you said, paint lines?

Throwing one student up front tearing tickets and letting chaos ensue is ridiculous.

It's the wild west ... not in a good way

On a lighter note, the "Dead Parrot Sketch" continues at the Tower Club concessions counter:

"Hi, I'll have a hot chocolate."

"Sorry, we don't have hot chocolate."

"But it says on your menu board that you do."

"I know. We either have hot chocolate or coffee, but never both."

"OK, I guess I'll have a coffee."

"We don't have coffee today."

"But you just told me you have coffee, but not hot chocolate."

"We HAVE coffee, in that we actually have the stuff to make it, but we didn't make any today."

First come, first serve in the Blue lots works well in my opinion. Heck, even close to kickoff Saturday there were plenty of spots.

Tailgreat park has been a free for all since it was started. Unless I'm mistaken, the 110 uses it for practice, so I'd guess painting parking lines all over it isn't something they want to do.

Here's my suggestion: Want a specific spot? Get there early. I got to The Convo blue lot at 11:15 Saturday and had one of over 100 spots to choose from. On Homecoming, we arrive at 8:45am - same thing - had my pick of the lot to pop up chairs and a table for tailgating. The Tailgreat lot was also only 1/3 full at that hour.


EDIT - one thing I'd agree on in the Tailgreat lot is having a couple people parking cars, with a predetermined max number of vehicles allowed in, and a predetermined amount of space being used per car/group.

Also, I haven't seen any of this as a problem once in the last 3 years.

The 110 has not practiced there in several years!

Forgiven. I think he was just pointing out that space is almost exclusively used as a tailgate lot nowadays.

But I still beg to differ on a few points ... (shocking, I know!)

The Tailgreat lot is NOT free. It's only for Blue Lot pass holders that are Bobcat Club donors. So not every Average Joe can get in there.

That's why adding a little structure isn't a bad thing. These are people that are donors to the athletic dept. It's a little frustrating to come to a game ... donate to the school ... and then fight for a parking spot in a lot that you have paid specifically to use ... when someone decides to park and put up a tent in a perfectly good parking spot right beside them.

You could easily fit more cars/tents/spots if it was structured a little better.

Not sure about Convo parking because I've never tried it.

And as far as homecoming, I'm not sure where you got your info. I pulled in to Tailgreat at 8:06am and got one of the last spots open and by 8:15am they quit letting cars into the lot.

It was a disaster ... people just parked in the middle and easily took up 20+ spots because of the way they parked.

That's what you get when you have no one inside the lot directing things.

It would not be hard to staff the lot with a couple other folks .... have them direct people where to park and have them all park consistently. Not allow folks to take up spots with tents. You get one spot ... and your tent goes off the back/front of your car.

Count the amount of spots that are available ... and limit that many cars to enter the lot.

It obviously isn't a problem for the Kent game because attendance was pretty low. <20,000 and I'm sure that number was a little inflated.

But for homecoming it's (always) a nightmare getting in there ... and for other big home games like Marshall that are on Saturdays.

Just imagine what happens when Peden is expanded.

Ha!

Tailgreat park needs something done mainly for homecoming. I also got there about 8:30 to get one of the last spots and not the spot where we usually tailgate. The spot We usually occupy had two vehicles and tents and rugs spread out taking up the space of ten cars. Every other game it's the same people parking in the same spaces. It's the people who just come down for Homecoming that screw things up. Do these people belong to the Bobcat Club and only come to one game a year? I guess that could be the story. Also, I thought Tailgreat was supposed to open 6 hours before kickoff?

This pretty well matches what I saw. Poor girl in front of me ordered nachos 30 minutes before kickoff. Two kids working the stand couldn't figure out how to get the synthetic cheese dispenser to work (I'm pretty sure synthetic cheese is the main appeal of nachos!). "Ummmm... we ran out of cheese, but we'll get more later! You want nachos just with salsa?" I ventured down for a Jackie O's draft (only cans available except for under the visiting stands) and they'd blown a keg again. "Every game we've brought more and every game we've run out." Of course, now that MACtion is starting, there won't be much ACTion at the gate or the beer stands. Whether it's items not available or comically slow service, it seems like they left a lot of concession money on the table.

Sports Ad students work operations. But let's remember that its Sports Ad professors who are wanting to do away with ICA Academic advisors and tutoring.

There's a lot of "misremembering" during homecoming, ha!

Here's the tough part about Tailgreat during homecoming ... so many people come into Athens super early that day .... park at Tailgreat ... and then just head Uptown for parade, Court St shenanigans.

So the lot itself, sometimes looks kind of "empty" when it comes to people. But there are cars hap-hazardously parked all over the place.

This is why the lot always opens at a crazy hour ... not the typical 6 hrs before kickoff (which would be 8am)

It's a shame our Gameday staff can't get their act together with parking, concessions, painted row number on the stairs, scoreboard, etc. It's all kind of a cluster ... and that's unfortunate because attendance numbers are pretty consistent during Saturday games and it always feels like they're scrambling to do the bare minimum.

Akron's gameday experience with concessions, parking, scoreboard, stadium amenities are all light years beyond Peden/OU .... and the Zips suck. And no one goes.

It's a shame Ohio can't get it together to give fans a memorable experience ... in a positive way with all the amenities to go along with a winning football team and an entertaining band.

If it wasn't for those two things ... I'm sure a lot of folks would stay away completely.

Sad thing is that now concessions is actually run by a "professional" outfit.