It was available for a lot of years but don't recall it recently
Last edited:
I'm out
- Thread starter diblakley
- Start date
Pretty sure there's no tailgating at the schools on Green Bay- probably St. A's too. You can tailgate in the Metra parking.
LOL. Our football team was in a bowl game two years ago. Is this the definition of a “fair weathered fan”?
Last edited:
Ok we will
All enjoy the new stadium. You can watch us on tv.
Good luck on the football parking, boys. If you haven't been to a basketball game this year, neighborhood parking is NUTS with the new regulations. And one of my first thoughts was how poorly the parking will be for football crowds. Is it fair to estimate football crowds are generally a minimum of twice as large as the capacity basketball crowds.
Who lives in the area? @pschatz25 ? Is there any discussion by Evanston and Wilmette to adjust the new parking limits in the future?
For my own selfish reasons, the only hope I see is if their police budget explodes. Corners that once had two or three officers now have a far heavier police presence with six or seven officers to better control traffic.
And if I know my Northwestern, they're not offering a dime for that extra manpower. So be it.
Who lives in the area? @pschatz25 ? Is there any discussion by Evanston and Wilmette to adjust the new parking limits in the future?
For my own selfish reasons, the only hope I see is if their police budget explodes. Corners that once had two or three officers now have a far heavier police presence with six or seven officers to better control traffic.
And if I know my Northwestern, they're not offering a dime for that extra manpower. So be it.
It doesn’t help that there are no east lot spots whatsoever. That’s another ~495 spots that will be available. Also appears that they’re contemplating an exit point directly onto Isabella from the new lot just east of the baseball field; I would imagine that everyone exiting the west lot is forced to go west on Isabella while everyone exiting from the “baseball lot” are pushed east.
The new neighborhood parking restrictions- I assume that's what you're referring to- still aren't being enforced. The parking in the neighborhood is swamped due to the East Lot temporarily not being available (Thanks, @gocatsgo2003 for covering this angle). It would also help if they hired more police to control the lights at more intersections. Right now I believe they're just controlling the Central/Ashland intersection. Even adding just Central/Green Bay and Lincoln/Green Bay and would really improve the situation. I haven't seen any chatter about when they'll start enforcing the parking restrictions. I've been hoping they would wait until the East Lot returns to minimize the impact on people coming to games.
As far as football parking, I'm assuming the new restrictions will be in effect by the time the stadium opens and I don't think the golf course will be available anymore, so spots in the stadium vicinity will be more limited. I'm sure NU will continue to push campus lots and downtown Evanston for parking and Metra/CTA for public transportation. Selfishly, I'd like to see them push the CTA bus, which is how I get to games. It runs through downtown Evanston, by campus, past the stadium, and out to Old Orchard. Maybe they could reserve some parking at Old Orchard?
I had responded to an earlier post. It is nice that there are going to be an additional 495 spaces. That offsets a number of the East lot spaces that will be lost (but I thought that they had used those practice field spots in the past so the number might not be that high). But the reality is that a lot more spaces are gone if the golf course is unavailable. Best guess around 4.5-5K spots minimum would be needed and between the available lots, less than 1400. Say there are another 600 between the schools and maybe the hospital but that still leaves a shortage of 2.5- 3 K. And in that area pretty hard to come up with anything more than maybe 1000 additional spots. Seems like it's gonna be pretty tight. Maybe they open up the areas that are being used this year.
No. East Lot parking will be substantially higher than it has been historically. The outdoor practice field behind Anderson had previously been used as “Wildcat Alley” while the outdoor field behind baseball was not used a ton.
You saying “available lots” is just the “premium lots” right next to the stadium. There are plenty of other options throughout campus, in downtown Evanston, etc. Plus whatever NU can do to push people to public transportation, which isn’t really an option at the vast majority of stadiums.
Long story short: NU fans are going to have to get used to how it works at pretty much any other decent-sized college stadium in the country. You’re gonna have to walk or you’re gonna have to pay a pretty penny.
EDIT: If you really want to nerd out on it, then there’s a full-on Traffic Plan available on the Evanston website. It’s geared toward the concerts, but determines that there are >6,700 spots available in the West Lot, East Lot, on campus, and at 3 public lots in Evanston before even considering Canal Shores.
EDIT #2: If you really really want, then you can even read the draft traffic management plan:
Last edited:
This may be a dumb question, but it wouldn't be my first.
So to clarify, are you saying they don't do anything on the streets with the two hours before/after signs? No tickets? No towing? Just decoration.
Do you know if that's true for Evanston and Wilmette?
As an out of towner who comes in for a game or two a year, I have never had any issues parking. I go early as it's such a treat for me.
I usually parked in the blocks south of Central or west of the stadium, around Eastwood.
I am not the type of guy who sees signs saying you can't park 2 hours before or after a game and roll the dice. Are there areas without these? Is north of Isabella a safe area?
Thanks for any help. Will be there to see us beating the Huskers
I usually parked in the blocks south of Central or west of the stadium, around Eastwood.
I am not the type of guy who sees signs saying you can't park 2 hours before or after a game and roll the dice. Are there areas without these? Is north of Isabella a safe area?
Thanks for any help. Will be there to see us beating the Huskers
Isabella is an east-west street… guessing you mean 4-5 blocks north of Isabella.
Either way, that’s hilariously close free street parking.
People should go visit another middling Big Ten game. Take Minnesota, for example. Another urban campus but one surrounded by dedicated campus parking lots. Also served by public transit. A small stadium (smaller even than Ryan Field) that is only very rarely full (even for midseason, nice weather, ranked matchups I've been to plenty of games there where it's only 2/3 full).
If you aren't a season ticket holder with a $1000+ donation and a $500 season pass or didn't shell out $200 per spot in a tailgate lot when the tickets opened to the public in July, you ain't getting one of the several thousand spots around the stadium and you're parking at a garage halfway across campus and walking or taking the green line.
I have been to the new MN stadium couple of times, Not smaller than Ryan Field (especially the new version) in that its capacity is about 51K (They have had 54K or a little more on several occasions. As you say surrounded by dedicated parking lots with thousands of spots close by, For the people that come to a single game it can be a challenge but what we are talking about is the regular ST holder who has reasonable options, Have also been to WIS and IA a few times and generally workable. IL has a good amount of parking around it as well for ST holder.
Not sure where you get substantially higher. East lot was shorter but substantially wider than what the drawings present for the new East lot and did not have the new design requirements which reduce the available spaces (as they did in the West lot) , In fact it shows only 319 spaces and you get to the 495 by adding in the other 176 spots in the practice area, I don't see where you are really gaining anything so I considered it a wash. In addition, there were times in the past that that practice facility was used for parking. And I added in extra for hospital and schools (though I was low on the hospital capacity That said many of the hospital spots would be in use already so would not be available). Also indicated that another 1000 spots could be available to count for Metra and L parking as well as others. Many of the University lots have not been really as available as indicated in the past so hard to say what we will see. And sorry but I have a hard time considering stuff 2 miles or farther away as a solid part of the mix (yes I have parked in one of the downtown garages in the past). Reality is that only a portion outside of the parking by the stadium is available for any kind of tailgating. (L and Metra, schools maybe and lot on Noyes across from Tech and maybe one more S of the temps stadium. So the max total might be 2400 Parking garages are not really able to be used that way.
The other stadiums I have been to have more spots available (adjusted for seating capacity)
Last edited:
You’re really arguing semantics there?
There’s gonna be parking on both the west and the east totaling ~1,300 spots literally next door to the stadium. Folks will have to either pony up to park there or come from other nearby lots, just like pretty much any other B1G stadium.
You make a good point. I'd say we were spoiled. But then again, each sport had it's painful days so we probably broke even.
Similar threads
