Week 1 Tailgating Observations

[cycloner29]

Had quite a few empty spots in the Haunted Forest from the looks of it. The way they handle game exit out of the G6,G7, and the Forest horrible. They should never allow anyone to turn left onto South 4th. They need to keep the lanes separated so the vehicles coming out to those lots keep the flow headed east. I have no idea what South 16th is like with those lots.

My brother told me it took him a half hour to get onto HWY 30 when he left G7. I should have told him to get just get onto Lincolnway and head west. Sure he would have hit a lot of stop lights but he probably would have gotten through a lot quicker.

 

[Trice]

Had quite a few empty spots in the Haunted Forest from the looks of it. The way they handle game exit out of the G6,G7, and the Forest horrible. They should never allow anyone to turn left onto South 4th. They need to keep the lanes separated so the vehicles coming out to those lots keep the flow headed east. I have no idea what South 16th is like with those lots.

My brother told me it took him a half hour to get onto HWY 30 when he left G7. I should have told him to get just get onto Lincolnway and head west. Sure he would have hit a lot of stop lights but he probably would have gotten through a lot quicker.

They've done that in years past. Not sure why they didn't on Saturday.

But yes, unless you are among the first to get out of the G7 driveway, going north to Lincoln Way (or even 13th) will usually save you time in the end.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

explain.

If you are going to allow people to park where ever they want then these are the issues you are going to have. It isnt the late arriving fans problem that the lots are a free for all.

 

[cstrunk]

Many people don't know how to properly use the portapotty "In Use/Open" latch. Almost every time we went up there, there were stalls empty but the latch was moved to "In Use" (and not closed) and no one ever approached them and the line would back up.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

The group in D3 that used a loud ass generator for 1 crockpot sucks.

 

[agcy68]

i really, really, really wish iowa state ad had the balls to tell people they cant park in the paved lots starting some time X minutes before the game.

there's always some jerkwad in a cadillac or huge suv that arrives at 2:45 for the 3:30 kick off and makes everyone clear the way so they can find a spot.

The real problem is that the last people to fill a specific lot only have a few spots to pick from. The only way to really fix that is to force people to fill in the lot that is conducive to late comers.
a- You are always going to have someone that has something else going on an shows up just in time
b- Even if you shut it off 1 hour prior to kick off - how many people would already be set up prior to that and still have to move?

If you left the late comers spots closest to the entrance, they wouldn't have to drive past anyone when they get there.

 

[VeloClone]

I hope they manage parking a lot better than they did 2 years ago when we had Game Day. I got off Hwy 30 at the Duff exit and it took over 2 hours before we finally got parked in G8 and that was about 7:45am be the time we actually were parked so going to the Game Day set before they went on air was a lost cause. I bet I sat on Duff for about 2/3 of that time before the lines every moved much. Granted the grass lots were limited for parking and closed the rest of the season after that game but it sounded like they were late getting the "holding lot" people moved to the student lots and it created a massive backup then they had no flow to how they were filling what was open after that. We barely got into G8 as just a few cars after us they stopped filling the lot as they were not using G4/G5 that week so not sure where they diverted the rest of the mess behind us to.

Makes me nervous how early we will have to get into town that morning if we want parked before Game Day goes on air.

Back in the day when there were early big games (Iowa, Nebraska) they would start putting the line up into the student lot pretty early - like 0400 - so there weren't issues with the making a **** show out of everything early in the morning.

 

[Gerbs]

Not so much tailgating, but I hated the new north entrance. Felt like being hearded like cattle. Huge cluster****

 

[VeloClone]

Many people don't know how to properly use the portapotty "In Use/Open" latch. Almost every time we went up there, there were stalls empty but the latch was moved to "In Use" (and not closed) and no one ever approached them and the line would back up.

People do this intentionally because they think it is funny. Don't ever let someone use it if they bypass the line and "find" one that is like this. They did it on purpose to try to have one they can get to directly. If they "find" one like that the next person in line uses it and the new guy goes to the back of the line.

 

[LarryISU]

G6 and G7 and Haunted Forest: There must be what, 1,000 cars in those lots, probably more actually. Here's what I saw that was really stupid, only using one lane to exit. Need to form two exit lanes and make everyone turn right to get out. They used to do that.

And just as stupid, if not worse, pedestrians were allowed to walk across the exit, so 10 cars would get out, then they would stop the cars and let 20 people walk across the exit. Oh my gosh, make pedestrians go to the north side of the road so that cars can exit non-stop!!!!! Common Sense was nowhere to be found.

 

[carvers4math]

We park near east hyvee and walk. On saturday we went to the car, ate at Huhot, and dropped off our guests back at Gateway hotel, and there were still people leaving Ames. This is why we don't park in the lots - that is an absurd amount of time to be stuck in traffic.

We do something similar only park on central campus and eat at Jeff’s.

We did that for UNI game but felt compelled to stop at tailgate in student lot since all five of our sons were there for the game. The parking over that way didn’t look bad but the South Gate was a disaster. Our student had much better luck at East Gate. Our tickets were on two phones and the one with two went really fast but the other with four, she had trouble with every single ticket.

I was initially thinking maybe get the prepaid public lots for Iowa but with Game Day the traffic will just be a disaster again.

Does anyone know if construction on 13th will be done this week?

 

[thisISnextyear]

Did anyone else experience the extreme bottleneck leaving the stadium out of the new concourse/gate? I've never seen anything like that at JTS but believe it's a result of not being able to walk straight out of the hillside and out of the stadium.

 

[clydeclone]

First Time at VetMed tailgating/camping observations
Staging was chaotic
We lined up multiple times on Friday on 16th Street only to be told we couldn’t park/stage there by the Ames police. They assured us that no one would be allowed to park there and then @30 minutes after we moved even more campers were in line. Finally they had us all move to the S3 lot by the stadium. However at the 5:30 opening time no one came to tell us to start going to VetMed lot so it was like the Oklahoma land rush as everyone made a mad dash across University Boulevard.

Parking was chaotic
There really was no rhyme or reason to how people parked so we were left on our own to figure out where to park and which direction to face. In addition there were still quite a few staff/student cars in the lot that created problems. Even with the construction of new VetMed buildings they could have fit many more RVs if they had been more efficient in how we parked and by Saturday there were still a ton of spots left. The grass area was completely empty of RV’s.

Tailgating was awesome
Once we were parked and set up the tailgating and camping were fantastic. Everyone was friendly, comparing food, walking around talking, drinking and having a great time. It’s way less noisy and rowdy compared to the regular lots but still a lot of fun. We quickly got used to the generators running on and off all day and night. It’s a longer walk to the game and for people coming up to tailgate with us but that was not that big a deal. We also had no concerns with anything being stolen while we were sleeping or during the game.

Final Verdict
We would highly recommend and would not hesitate to do this again.

 

[IcSyU]

Late arriving vehicles aren't an issue if people follow the "rules" of their parking pass. The problem is people don't. They want to have a 100 person tailgate in two parking spots and sorry....it doesn't work.

They basically at this point need to put an 8' aisle down the middle of each row that shows "no tailgating here" because people can't be respectful. If you want to put out a bunch of **** you better show up early and pull your vehicle as far into the ditch as you can so you can use the pavement for setting up. If not, tough ****.

 

[carvers4math]

Did anyone else experience the extreme bottleneck leaving the stadium out of the new concourse/gate? I've never seen anything like that at JTS but believe it's a result of not being able to walk straight out of the hillside and out of the stadium.

Yep. And then we finally get out and someone is yelling at “ISU fans” to get away from UNI band buses. Gonna wait long after the swinging tubas of the lying Hawk band this week.

 

[cycloner29]

We do something similar only park on central campus and eat at Jeff’s.

We did that for UNI game but felt compelled to stop at tailgate in student lot since all five of our sons were there for the game. The parking over that way didn’t look bad but the South Gate was a disaster. Our student had much better luck at East Gate. Our tickets were on two phones and the one with two went really fast but the other with four, she had trouble with every single ticket.

I was initially thinking maybe get the prepaid public lots for Iowa but with Game Day the traffic will just be a disaster again.

Does anyone know if construction on 13th will be done this week?

This Ames remember, no way its done. Still digging up dirt to replace some culverts.

Did anyone else experience the extreme bottleneck leaving the stadium out of the new concourse/gate? I've never seen anything like that at JTS but believe it's a result of not being able to walk straight out of the hillside and out of the stadium.

I've mentioned this twice in couple posts when they were improvements. It is a clusterF###k!!

 

[Cyclonsin]

This Ames remember, no way its done. Still digging up dirt to replace some culverts.



I've mentioned this twice in couple posts when they were improvements. It is a clusterF###k!!

I have to believe that some of the issues with crowds at the North entrance are people wanting to check out the new end in person. That's why our group entered from the North, despite the East or South entrances being closer to our seats.

 

[DSMCy]

One solution I've thought of before, regarding the late arrivals, is to more granularly split up the lots.

Instead of the huge C4, C5 lots, split them up into C4-1, C4-2, etc. If you know you are planning tailgate early each game, then you'd buy the lot that's closer to the stadium.

I have young kids that we either bring to the games, or get a babysitter. Because of this, we don't do much tailgating other than maybe an hour before the game. So obviously we're on of the late arrivers. But we buy C1/C2 parking so that we aren't trying to drive down C4 for a spot that close to the game.

I'll say for the UNI game, there were a ton of spots left in C2 when we got there. That was at about 2:30. I was pretty surprised it wasn't full.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Yep. And then we finally get out and someone is yelling at “ISU fans” to get away from UNI band buses. Gonna wait long after the swinging tubas of the lying Hawk band this week.

The sousaphones are some bad MF's!

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

One solution I've thought of before, regarding the late arrivals, is to more granularly split up the lots.

Instead of the huge C4, C5 lots, split them up into C4-1, C4-2, etc. If you know you are planning tailgate early each game, then you'd buy the lot that's closer to the stadium.

I have young kids that we either bring to the games, or get a babysitter. Because of this, we don't do much tailgating other than maybe an hour before the game. So obviously we're on of the late arrivers. But we buy C1/C2 parking so that we aren't trying to drive down C4 for a spot that close to the game.

I'll say for the UNI game, there were a ton of spots left in C2 when we got there. That was at about 2:30. I was pretty surprised it wasn't full.

I can't remember a single time I've been in the north lot and there weren't tons of open spots. It's pretty frustrating to see, especially when you factor in how many people have been pushed out of the north lot.