NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sports fans around the country are facing costlier or longer rides to the game because of a recent federal regulation that restricts the use of public shuttles that people take from train stations or offsite parking to the stadium.
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The situation has left NFL teams and schools with major college football programs scrambling for alternatives ahead of the upcoming regular season.
The American Public Transit Association says the regulation — designed to foster free-market competition — instead is pushing riders away from public transport at a moment when gasoline costs 82 cents more per gallon than it did at this time last year. The rule also could mean more traffic congestion as fans opt to drive to stadium-area lots.
"Often, widely attended public events are a rider's way into the system,” said Jim LaRusch, general counsel for APTA. "They get on it for the first time and say, ‘Hey, this is kind of neat. I wouldn't mind doing this every day.' That could be a problem.”
Under a Federal Transit Administration regulation that took effect May 1, local transit authorities no longer can offer game-day shuttle service to fans if that service is: not part the regular schedule; if the fee is higher than the regular fare; or if a team or other group is involved, and negotiate a special price for the service.
The penalty for failure to comply is stiff — loss of federal transportation funding.
"Basically all federal money is in jeopardy. They don't mess around,” said Jim McAteer, director of planning for Nashville's Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The Tennessee Titans managed to line up a private company to bus 5,000 fans from remote lots and deliver them to LP Field before Saturday night's exhibition opener against the St. Louis Rams for $10 each, $3 higher than the Nashville bus system.
Gaylon Smith said he and other fans would have a tough time getting to the game without a shuttle. "We'd have to find a parking spot close, because that's hard on us older folks (to walk far),” the 63-year-old man said.
Walter and Saletta Holloway of Nashville weren't happy with the price hike. "But what can you do about it?” Saletta Holloway said. "It's a little bit better for us to ride than to walk.”
The $6 shuttles for fans going to see the Washington Redskins are in place through the first two games of the regular season, thanks to a waiver the team obtained. But after that they will disappear. The team isn't planning to replace them because the fee per fan to ride less than a mile from the nearest Metro station would have been $20.
"It just doesn't make sense,” Redskins vice president Karl Swanson said.
Also gone are the $10 rides that bused 2,550 fans from a light-rail station to Baltimore Ravens' games. The team sent a brochure to season ticket holders explaining the situation.
The revision is designed to make it clear when a service should be handled by a private company.
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Simple solution is to make routes to the stadiums "regular routes". RTD up here has published Saturday, Sunday and Bronco game day routes. Pretty easy to get around this one. I find it interesting to note that in Tempe on December 31, All bus lines were free giving the OSU and Indiana fans free transit to the game. You can not tell me that I can take an airplane from Denver to Phoenix for $79 but a ten minute bus ride to the Redskins' game would cost $20 a person. Tempe had it right. Get them to the game at any cost and make your money there instead of through the transit costs.
This is retarded. There are some public functions that need to be just that -- public functions. And if it is cheaper to do that by having fans pay their way, then so be it. I encourage the mass transit entities to thumb their nose at the DOT. If they pull federal funding, then sue the DOT agency directors personally.
Taxpayers should not subsidize any of the cost for getting fans to a game. No wonder taxes are so high. But I guess we do subsidize trains and subways taking people to who knows what! And fewer roads and cars save us taxes. Will OU continue the shuttle from Lloyd Noble?
I don't know about OSU, but OU fans park at LNC and other parking areas and are shuttled to the stadium for a fee. If that goes away, it's quite a hike. How many usually attend OSU games, 30,000? It may not be an issue there, where OU averages over 85k with limited parking.
This story is listed on both the OU and OSU pages. Did I miss the part of how this related to our game days? And if so, couldn't they have provided information of how it would affect fans on game days in Norman and Stillwater?
Yeah, what's the deal with all those city-sponsored, tax-subsidized mass transit systems having a monopoly on city-wide mass transit? I wanna ride the Wal-Mart bus to school, mommy, and the Microsoft bus to Wal-Mart...
Once again when it comes to government trying to "fix a problem," the solution is usually worse than the original problem. Government regulation and policy should be judged on its results not on its intentions!
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.