Anyone drive on I-25 down to the Avs NHL game?

[TCHP]

So I've listened to all of this wondering why it seemed to awful. I mean really, with a D1 football program, the Academy is used to getting large quantities of people in and out of the base without a whole lot of drama numerous weekends a year. Was it just that Denver people where sensitive to it after the drive through the gap that they don't normally do? Well, maybe, but I've also learned that after the game as people were exiting, an accident with a fatality at the north gate lead to that road being closed and ALL traffic being re-routed to exit at the south gate only. Now, with over 40k people going out one exit, that explains traffic bad enough that it could constipate an elephant. Then add in the whole gap issue and there is the perfect storm.

[Mike from back east]

I drove over to several football games at the USAFA and getting off I-25 and through the gates was always easy and smooth. Parking was rather weird in some cases but not that noteworthy. I went to some USAF - Army games and a USAF-Notre Dame game and loved the experience, especially the flyovers.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by TCHP

So I've listened to all of this wondering why it seemed to awful. I mean really, with a D1 football program, the Academy is used to getting large quantities of people in and out of the base without a whole lot of drama numerous weekends a year. Was it just that Denver people where sensitive to it after the drive through the gap that they don't normally do? Well, maybe, but I've also learned that after the game as people were exiting, an accident with a fatality at the north gate lead to that road being closed and ALL traffic being re-routed to exit at the south gate only. Now, with over 40k people going out one exit, that explains traffic bad enough that it could constipate an elephant. Then add in the whole gap issue and there is the perfect storm.

This^^^^. North Gate exit was closed after a civilian fell to his death from the bridge over the train tracks. It made the egress out of the stadium much, much worse.

[Mike from back east]

I've written before there ought to be an exit off I-25, as part of an expanded interchange at Interquest, for direct access to Falcon Stadium parking lots. It could be closed except for game access, or part of a new access gate into the Academy. With an $800B defense budget you'd think they could find some spare change in there for fixing access to the USAF Academy. Silly me.

[Willy702]

Originally Posted by TCHP

So I've listened to all of this wondering why it seemed to awful. I mean really, with a D1 football program, the Academy is used to getting large quantities of people in and out of the base without a whole lot of drama numerous weekends a year. Was it just that Denver people where sensitive to it after the drive through the gap that they don't normally do? Well, maybe, but I've also learned that after the game as people were exiting, an accident with a fatality at the north gate lead to that road being closed and ALL traffic being re-routed to exit at the south gate only. Now, with over 40k people going out one exit, that explains traffic bad enough that it could constipate an elephant. Then add in the whole gap issue and there is the perfect storm.

They fill up the stadium maybe once a year. Most of the fan base comes from around COS, they have little visibility in the Denver market so it was a much different crowd. The game against Notre Dame a few years back and BYU around the same time caused big traffic jams because the opponents were draws for Denver area residents. One could say they could make changes to make the crowd control better, but this was one game held in the middle of the off-season when they don't have concession workers, ushers, security, and many others on regular work schedule. All they had out there had to be hired on a one-off basis. I don't think people understand how incredibly hard that would be to do. USAFA did what they could, I went through the South Gate along with thousands of other cars, it was backed up too getting in, but actually moved fine getting out. The closure of the North Gate seemed to be caused by the fatality, but how could that have been predicted? How could CDOT deciding they had to close a lane for repairs in the middle of what they knew was a big traffic jam predicted?

I get a kick out of people saying no thanks, heck no, why do it, etc. They sold out the stadium at premium prices. The supposed thousands of late arriving fans seemed utterly inflated, there were few empty seats after the puck was dropped. I had a great view of the stadium and looked, I could see the parking lot and what had been a steady line of cars was pretty much a trickle by the time of the short concert. A friend asked me to take a shot of the crowd after the first period because he didn't believe that many people would pay that much to freeze for 3 hours, you'd be hard pressed to spot more than a few empty seats in it. People were leaving during the third period, probably turned off by the prospect of traffic, but they were people that appeared to be in their seats for the start of the game.

I feel for the people who did have issues getting to the game, but I think the noise has just be inflated by the media, especially ESPN, trying to make it out like it was a major snafu. It was a hassle, nothing was perfect or great, but one should not have expected it to be. I can't see how any sporting event or league could be held responsible for all these issues out of their control and issue refunds for them.