The dark blue ones are only used for visitors and the dark green ones require a large donation. The yellow ones aren’t available and the red ones are for buses.
These are several of the meanings behind the colored hoods that cover parking meters at men’s and women’s basketball games. The Athletics Department pays for the hoods, and many of them allow free parking until 4 p.m. on game days.
According to Rand Stamm, Department of Public Safety parking and transportation manager, the spaces with red, brown, dark green and dark blue hoods are available for free parking until 4 p.m. The spaces with white, yellow and light blue hoods, however, are not available for parking. None of the spaces with hoods are available for parking during weekend games because game times change.
The red hoods reserve space for Lane Transit District buses, spaces with brown hoods are for the media, spaces with dark green hoods are reserved for special donors to the Athletics Department and the dark blue hoods retain space for the visiting team’s bus.
The white hoods save space for television trucks, the yellow hoods read “No Parking” and the light blue hoods reserve space for those with disabled parking passes.
Dave Williford, assistant athletic director of media services for the Athletics Department, said that, on average, around 3,946 people attend women’s basketball games and around 8,984 attend men’s games.
He added that $1,095 is spent for meter hoods at each women’s basketball game. That fee pays for 73 hooded meters for staff, media and the visiting team.
The men’s basketball games have 99 hooded meters at a cost of $1,485 per game. The Athletics Department receives 30 hooded meters for
disabled parking and 74 hooded meters for LTD buses free of charge for each men’s and women’s basketball game.
Stamm said that people using the hooded parking meters after 4 p.m. hasn’t been a problem.
“We haven’t had to tow from them very often,” he said. “Occasionally we have had one or two.”
Other than the occasional tow, DPS has faced only a few other parking problems during games.
“One of the things I have noticed this year is we’ve run into quite a few people who are parking at the disabled space hoods,” Stamm said. “Which they’re not supposed to do at any time unless they have a disabled placard.” He added that the violation has an expensive fine.
The DPS Web site states that “improper parking in a space designated for disabled parking” is a $300 violation.
The multicolored hoods were primarily created for basketball games because there are many types of assignments, Stamm said.
He added that the hoods are put up the night before games by student community service officers at about 8 p.m.
“We put them up at night because when (people) come in the morning the space is already taken and they know not to park there,” he said.
Stamm said that students seem to enjoy the free parking during most of the day. However, some students have complained about other large hooding reservations for special events around campus, mostly during the day.
He added that ASUO groups that don’t charge for an event can reserve parking meters for free, but events that have a fee or events put on by other departments on campus must pay for the parking meters.