Parking at the Super Bowl

December 9th, 2013

Perhaps one of the starkest differences between living in New York and Houston is parking. Here in HTown, I don’t have to think about parking. Ever. Everywhere I go, there will be parking. In fact, Houston law mandates 1.5 parking spots for each bedroom. There’s no such thing as alternate side parking (if you don’t know what that is, consider yourself fortunate). Parking is a way of life. In New York, not so much.

And parking at the Superbowl at MetLife stadium in Jersey will be no different.

There will be only three ways for the expected 80,000 ticket holders to get to the game. The committee will charter buses called the Fan Express, which will cost $51 and pick up and drop off passengers at nine locations around the region. Fans can also take N.J. Transit to the MetLife Stadium stop or be dropped off by vehicles that must have parking passes.

There will be fewer than 13,000 parking spots available for fans.

And hiring a black car, taxi or limo won’t be an option for VIPs who will spend thousands of dollars per ticket. No cars will be allowed near the stadium on game day without parking passes, and any car that drops off a passenger will have to wait at the stadium.

“Nobody’s going to be dropped off by black car,” Kelly said. “You can have a black car, a green car, a white car, a red car as long as you have parking, and the car needs to stay on the premises the entire time.”

And don’t even think about walking. Fuhgeddaboudit

Fans who had considered parking farther from the stadium and getting there on foot will not be allowed to enter.

“You cannot walk to the Super Bowl,” Kelly said. “You can get your hotel to drop you off at one of the New Jersey Transit locations or get the shuttle to take you to a Fan Express location, but you cannot walk.”

And if it snows? Nightmare.

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