If you haven’t coughed up a $1 million contribution to the University Legacy Fund yet but still want to catch a men’s basketball game this year at the recently unveiled Matthew Knight Arena, you may find yourself battling for a place to park.
More than 12,000 fans attended last Thursday’s debut game at the new arena, but very few were able to use the facility’s new 377-space underground parking structure.
This is because the multi-level lot is reserved for members of the Founders Club — $1 million Legacy Fund donors and above — and their guests for the rest of the 2011 season, according to the arena’s website.
Because so few parking spaces are available for other attendees, the University has been forced to use its own parking resources, in addition to designating part of Fairmont Neighborhood in east campus as an “arena parking district.”
Additionally, the University is urging attendees to either bike or ride round-trip park and ride arena shuttles to cut down on vehicle congestion. Fare for the shuttle is $3 per person, with exact change required.
“There is going to be (much) more attendance than what can be accommodated in the garage,” University spokesperson Julie Brown said, “and we are going to encourage people to use alternative modes of transportation.”
Before Thursday’s unveiling, arena-goers could purchase a season parking pass for on-street parking in Fairmont for $70, equating to $10 per remaining game.
According to the Men’s Basketball Parking and Transportation Information FAQs on the arena’s website, there are approximately 700 parking spaces in the neighborhood, 200 of which are automatically reserved for residents, leaving approximately 500 spaces the University could sell. Drivers will be hit with a similar expense in campus lots, where parking attendants will charge $10 per car starting 90 minutes before each game, a tactic that was not employed during the McArthur Court era.
Since three of the season’s remaining seven games are set to tip off on Thursday evenings, the use of campus lots for arena parking has threatened to conflict with the academic routines of regular campus commuters.
According to an e-mail from Michael Bullis, dean of the College of Education, the issue of insufficient arena parking has caught many College of Education faculty members by surprise. Upon learning that parking lots No. 17, 18 and 40 around the College of Education would be used for game parking, Bullis raised an objection to the directive that cars arriving in those lots after 4 p.m. for Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. game would be charged $10 by lot attendants.
“Because the HEDCO Clinics are open and serving individuals until 8 p.m. and we have evening classes with faculty and staff arriving after 4 p.m., that initial directive did not work for us,” Bullis said.
Bullis was eventually told that faculty and staff not headed to the game should simply tell the uniformed attendants that they are arriving for non-arena purposes.
In another e-mail written by University Senate President Nathan Tublitz under the subject “Arena Parking SNAFU,” Thursday’s parking charade on campus did not run smoothly.
“Many people arriving to campus for non-basketball purposes were forced to pay $10 to park even if they had a valid parking permit,” Tublitz, a University biology professor, said in the e-mail.
Tublitz urged all faculty, staff and student commuters who believe they were incorrectly charged the $10 fee to write to the University’s Vice President for Finance and Administration, Frances Dyke.
“Dyke has agreed that this charge occurred in error and would like to rectify this situation with each individual who was charged inappropriately,” Tubliz said.
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