Read a couple of articles today that detailed some negative driving experiences last night and wanted to put this out there for others on the forum.

For my part, the drive was uneventful. Left the stadium with 3:02 remaining in the fourth (I'm nursing a torn hamstring so I need a little extra time getting to / from my car). From the time I sat in my car post game (Gold Lot) to the time I pulled into my driveway (Royalwood) was all of 14 minutes .. the only "negative" for me was some uncontrolled pedestrian crossings (by the golf course) that slowed traffic a bit.

What about everyone else? Curious to hear about your experiences in light of the bet Wade made.

 

According to this article, not much difference. 

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/manitoba/bombers-free-tickets-game-opener-1.4196425

Personal experience, not much different then other years.   We got moved to the soccer complex parking lot this year.   10 - 15 minute wait to get out of the parking lot.     Smooth sailing once we hit Chancellor Matheson.  

Not an unreasonable wait with that many people leaving all at once. 

Exiting the stadium ... whole other story.  Coming down from the 200 level, going down the stairs that lead to where they setup the pregame fan area.  Security guard won't let people out the door.  We get funnelled into the 100 level concourse.   Lots and lots of people there all trying to exit.

Seems really stupid to funnel people from the upper deck in with people on the main level.  Can't be up to fire code  

No problems leaving through that door other years.  This is new and happened for the preseason game as well. 

Sounds like most had a good experience. I dont blame the bombers at all but pembina construction is a mess and definitely slows things down. I know a few people who went last night and that was their first time at IGF.. They all said they had a great experience minus Pembina being backed up.. But it has been since they started construction work there. Monday at 3pm is slow also so put a ton of cars on there at the same time and its expected. 

Few  extra minutes but there was a lot more people in the Gold lot than normal.

FFS, bulldoze that golf course and build a  walkway across the Red to River or St. Mary's.

Edited July 9, 20178 yr by FrostyWinnipeg

We stayed right till the end and had no problems exiting the building. As always, parked at Barley Bros and walked over. Great experience all around, aside from the game itself... 

I always park across Pembina in Waverley Heights and I found that traffic out of there was slower than usual.  The only problem was getting onto Bison/Waverley because there were many more cars there due to the no right turn onto Pembina from Chancellor Matheson.

That being said, it never really takes me all that long to get home, so no real complaint.

I noticed a number of buses still using Chancellor Matheson when we were promised that wouldn't happen (unless I misunderstood).  it seemed these were "private" shuttle buses (to bars etc).  However, they obviously had special permission to be parked in the curb lane with their signs out.  It did seem that Chancellor Matheson moved a lot faster (we walked).

The placement of the Rum Hut is still stupid and essentially cuts the main concourse in half (as its very difficult to walk by there).

We were in a loge area which is absolutely tremendous, by the way.

17 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I noticed a number of buses still using Chancellor Matheson when we were promised that wouldn't happen (unless I misunderstood).  it seemed these were "private" shuttle buses (to bars etc).  However, they obviously had special permission to be parked in the curb lane with their signs out.  It did seem that Chancellor Matheson moved a lot faster (we walked).

The placement of the Rum Hut is still stupid and essentially cuts the main concourse in half (as its very difficult to walk by there).

We were in a loge area which is absolutely tremendous, by the way.

Yes, the buses you will see on Chancellor Matheson will be the shuttle buses to the bars. Not sure how many of them there are, but that's where they have them staged.

Was pretty frustrated driving from markham road to bishop grandin on pembina where we were basically at a standstill.  30 minutes for that stretch. 10 minutes to get home (Sage Creek) from there.

Our in/out time was the similar to last year.  Red pass in U-lot.   Not sure why they go to 1 lane prior to the stadium turn.   They could have 1 lane for the west side of U-lot and a second lane for the east side of u-lot and remove a bottleneck, thus speeding up the entrance time.

We park in Blue lot on campus and was nervous about not being able to make a right turn on to Pembina to get to Bishop. Had to go all the way Waverly / Bishop to get on but honestly it was faster than Pembina to Bishop has ever been.

My complaint was getting in on Chancellor Matheson. We were on Pembina in line to make the left turn as usual and it took 30 minutes from in from of the Vic to get to the parking lot. Seemed like fewer people guiding people coming in and the campus seemed to be the bottle neck not the lights themselves.

Was the worst drive to the stadium since the very first preseason 5 years ago, usually take about 50 minutes from house to seats was over an hour 15 and missed the kick off...

6 hours ago, BBlink said:

Was pretty frustrated driving from markham road to bishop grandin on pembina where we were basically at a standstill.  30 minutes for that stretch. 10 minutes to get home (Sage Creek) from there.

I assumed the no right turn on Pembina from Chancellor Matheson was to cut down on the amount of traffic going south on Pembina.  Doesnt sound like it helped much.

Were many people taking the parking lots?  You could get from Markham all the way to Chancellor Drive (practically at Bishop) driving through parking lots (which would be fairly empty after the game).

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I assumed the no right turn on Pembina from Chancellor Matheson was to cut down on the amount of traffic going south on Pembina.  Doesnt sound like it helped much.

Were many people taking the parking lots?  You could get from Markham all the way to Chancellor Drive (practically at Bishop) driving through parking lots (which would be fairly empty after the game).

Honestly didn't notice people going through parking lots but I got into the right lane on Pembina right away. Maybe I need to learn to abuse the system a bit

From what I experienced, the biggest bottle neck was getting people out of the lots. Once we got onto the roads, even while we were still on campus, we moved pretty well. I think the clusterfuck stems from the use of volunteers/lack of training for said volunteers in the parking lots. They didn't seem to have a proper plan to get cars out efficiently which lead to people cutting across the lot to other lines and turning it into a mess. You can use volunteers, but there needs to be a system in place regarding how to get cars out of the lots and the volunteers need to be knowledgable of this system.

On 08/07/2017 at 4:40 PM, Rich said:

According to this article, not much difference. 

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/manitoba/bombers-free-tickets-game-opener-1.4196425

Personal experience, not much different then other years.   We got moved to the soccer complex parking lot this year.   10 - 15 minute wait to get out of the parking lot.     Smooth sailing once we hit Chancellor Matheson.  

Not an unreasonable wait with that many people leaving all at once. 

Exiting the stadium ... whole other story.  Coming down from the 200 level, going down the stairs that lead to where they setup the pregame fan area.  Security guard won't let people out the door.  We get funnelled into the 100 level concourse.   Lots and lots of people there all trying to exit.

Seems really stupid to funnel people from the upper deck in with people on the main level.  Can't be up to fire code  

No problems leaving through that door other years.  This is new and happened for the preseason game as well. 

Experience leaving the stadium last night was much improved over last week.    The security blocking the exit has been taken care of and was there holding the door open with a smile allowing everyone to leave rather then forcing them back into the stadium.

We got an email earlier in the week that said a new plan has been put in place for exiting our parking lot (green lot).  We were out of the parking lot in under a minute of getting to our car last night.    There are two exits out and they split the lot so half would go out one exit, half the other, and even had cones on Chancelor Matheson so that one exit was in the far lane and the other exit in the near lane rather then everyone leaving through a single exit and into a single lane.

Good on the Bombers staff and organisation for being receptive and reactive to feedback, and continuing to try and improve the game day experience.   Was looking around the stadium pregame last night and compared to the setup and atmosphere to what it was in the first few seasons ... they've come a long way and have put in a lot of effort to address the issues and concerns that people have brought up.

Very much appreciated.

 

The buses were running really smooth too. We were on the Downs bus and on Pembina and moving within a couple of minutes.

Went with my daughter last night and we were there right to the end.  Took us a little longer to get out of Gold lot BUT it was much more organized than even the previous week when I had to duck out a bit early.  In all, was 30 minutes from car to driveway and I didn't ever feel as though I was waiting unnecessarily or that there wasn't some plan to get us out efficiently (this has been something I've felt and noted in the past, even when I've gotten out quickly).

I think we sometimes forget that it took 20 25 minutes or longer even to leave the Polo location  depending where u parked also. Its not like you got out of the Polo Park area quickly either. 

On 7/10/2017 at 6:35 PM, ediger said:

From what I experienced, the biggest bottle neck was getting people out of the lots. Once we got onto the roads, even while we were still on campus, we moved pretty well. I think the clusterfuck stems from the use of volunteers/lack of training for said volunteers in the parking lots. They didn't seem to have a proper plan to get cars out efficiently which lead to people cutting across the lot to other lines and turning it into a mess. You can use volunteers, but there needs to be a system in place regarding how to get cars out of the lots and the volunteers need to be knowledgable of this system.

This. So much this...

I don't know about anyone else, but I've seen a lot of disgruntled or aggressive drivers muscle their way past volunteers or into places they shouldn't be going. It is only a matter of time before either a volunteer or pedestrian gets hurt, or there is a fender bender in the parking lot itself, which would really slow things down.

I think one of the best things I saw was a volunteer dealt with an aggressive driver by going over to his vehicle and putting her butt right on his front bumper - he couldn't move, and she was still able to wave everyone else (the people actually waiting in line) through still.

If there is one thing that ticks me off with the volunteers, is they tend to just let aggressive drivers get their way, which kind of fuels the problem... can't really blame them though I mean they're not getting paid (I think they might get free tickets to the game?) and it sounds like a pretty terrible gig.

We park in the blue lot by that cool gray building with the big blue panoramic window. Getting out is waaaaay faster. The no right turn off ChancellorMatheson is no issue at all as I just take Waverly to McGillivary to Pembina to my Dads house on Jessie. Even though the game started half hour later than Thursday games last year, I have to drive farther to get my Dad home and back through the city to get back to #1 I got back to Portage la Prairie a full hour earlier than normal. So yes my driving experience is massively, massively better. 

 

Edited July 14, 20178 yr by Dragon37

Park and ride was awesome.  Very fast in and out.