Dodger shuttle strikes out with fans

Baseball fans who turned out for tonight's commemorative L.A. Dodgers game got an unpleasant surprise -- at least, those who showed up at Dodger Stadium, not the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

So many people came to use the shuttle buses that, half an hour into the game, thousands of fans were still waiting in the Dodger Staduim parking lot, reports David Zahniser. Some fans waited in line for more than two hours before boarding a bus.

"It's like a free for all," said 53-year-old baseball fan Dexter Hilliard, as he stood in line in the Dodger parking lot as the game at the Coliseum was in the first inning.

Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said his organization originally had 40 buses and shuttles ready to transport 5,000 people. Instead, the team found itself with 35,000 passengers, forcing the team to add another 60 buses.

An official with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, which worked to smooth traffic for the Dodger buses, said every shuttle bus fan had reached the game by 8:30 pm, roughly an hour and a half after its start time.

-- Jesus Sanchez

Comments

[Jeff]

What was the point of taking reservations when no provisions were made for those who bothered to make them? The previous posts are no exaggeration -- there was absolutely no supervision in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. It was just "show up, get in line, wait it out." I'm no Dodger fan -- never even been to a game in L.A.. But I'm a huge baseball fan and appreciate it from an old school historian's perspective. My wife grew up in San Gabriel rooting for the Dodgers. So we both were excited at the prospect of witnessing this historical event, and came down from Sacramento to be a part of it. I would've loved to have been able to tour around the Coliseum (it's a freakin' historical artifact!) and witness all of the pregame festivities. Instead, I got to the stadium an hour after the game started and got to watch six innings of second-stringers and minor leaguers playing on half a field before dealing with the nightmare trip in reverse. Best part of the night was managing to catch a cab back to Dodger Stadium. Oh well. I grew up hating the Dodgers. Guess there's no reason to change that now.

[Anthony Garcia]

Like many of the folks that have already posted their comments here, I arived at Dodger Staduim at 5:15. Our party was two adults and two children (5 and 10 yrs old). As we were on the I-5, fast approaching the Stadium Way exit, we asked ourselves one last time if we should do the shuttle thing or make our way to the Coliseum area. At that exact moment, we saw one of the didgital traffic signs along the freeway that read: "Coliseum parking full, use stadium shuttle". Decision made! We got to the parking lot and were in shock when we saw the length of the line! The fact that it zig zagged back and forth a few times made it even more shocking! To the credit of all of th fans in line at that point in time, there were no ugly incidents to speak of. Based on the fact that there was little to no supervision at the location, it could have gotten ugly really quickly! After a couple of hours, we got on a shuttle and arrived in our seats at 8:20 in the 3rd inning. I know I could have avoided this headache by arriving earlier, but nothing could have prevented what was inevitably going to happen after the game! I enjoyed the game as best I could with my 5 year old son, who is already a HUGE Dodger fan! In the back of my mind, I feared what was coming when we had to catch those shuttles back to the stadium. When we walked out of the coliseum, even though I knew to expect, I was shocked at the length of the line. Just to see how long of a line it actually was, I walked briskly from the back of the line to the pickup location, that alone took over 15 minutes!! Like many others, we decided that a cab was a better idea. You should have seen the emotion and confusion as thousands of folks along Figueroa all tried to hail cabs at the same time! Our corner of choice was at Jefferson and Figeuroa, at the very well lit Felix Chevrolet. This effort got more frustrating and very concerning as we fast approached midnight, an hour and a half after starting our search for a cab. My 5 year old was quickly becoming hysterical as cab after cab sped by us! He was tired, cold, and very afraid of being in the streets of Los Angeles! At one point he screamed how he was never coming to a Dodger game again! So, what I had hoped would be one of his fondest memories of hanging out with dad, had officially turned into a nightmare and traumatic experience for him. We made our way back to the Raddison and hoped for the best, even contemplating gettng a room and dealing with it in the morning! Luckily for us, a Cabbie saw me with a hysterical child and felt sorry for me. He passed up other fares and stopped right in front of me. He got us to the stadium at just a little past midnight. I commend the McCourts for their attempt at offering free shuttles to and from the game, I just hope that they realize that it was a colossal failure.

[Dennis Kelly]

It was a great idea for the shuttles but they didn't plan for how many people were going to use it. Getting back to Dodger Stadium after the game was terrible. Waiting two hours for a shuttle Frank McCourt should of been with us waiting. The Dodgers should give all of us some free tickets for waiting.

[Once a dodger fan now a Red sox fan]

Four of us got to Dodger Stadium at about 4:45.
Stood in line for about 45 minutes.
Figured we wouldn't make it at the rate we were moving considering there were probably 30, 000 still in front of us waiting for the buses at 5:30pm.
We decided to get in the car and try to get close to the Coliseum and cab it it.
We parked at the Boneventure for $15.00 and took a cab to the game for $12.00. We made it for the first pitch. We left after the 6th and walked to the Radisson. The taxi pick up on the curb was getting chaotic so one of us went around the corner to get a cab before he hit the Radisson taxi pick up. On our walk to the Radisson, we ran into a gal from Boston and she decided to wait at the taxi pickup on the curb. Since we got a cab before anyone else, we swung by the Radisson cab pickup and and pointed to the Boston gal and asked her if she wanted to share our cab. She was so greatful. We made it back to the Boneventure for another $12.00 and watched the end of the game in the bar of the hotel. It was an ADVENTURE, if nothing else.

[Go Dodgers]

We arrived @ Dodger Stadium at 11 a.m. My husband is on crutches and we wanted to enjoy the festivities. Not knowing what to expect, we decided to make a day of it and anticpated delays even with an early start. We made reservations over the phone as directed and the execution seemed pretty seamless. We had great parking, easy loading onto waiting shuttles, etc. The gates didn't actually open until 11 a.m, but after parking, loading by 11:15 a.m. and taking the directed route, we arrived a bit after noon. Not too shabby. We left at the start of the 7th inning, again, not knowing what to expect. We got to Exposition to see people waiting in sections for arriving shuttles. We chose a section, waiting for a second shuttle to arrive after not being able to get on the first one (it was full) and were at Dodger Stadium just a short 20 minutes later. We were home by 10:30 p.m. With some planning and allowing for the unexpected, it all worked out great for us.

[marie]

We were @ the dodgers stadium at 5pm thinking it will be easier to get a shuttle ride. Not thinking that it was going to be a nightmare.I'm sorry but there weren't any 40 buses there as they claimed.There were probably at the most 10 shuttles (w/c seats 21 people) and probably 6-8 big buses.Or it may be less,who knows.What were the organizers thinking.HELLO???Estimated people to attend was 115,000 Not 1,500.But baseball fans were just great.Everybody was patiently waiting for their turn.We got to the Coliseum at 8pm and getting home is another story.In the end we were forced to take a cab and got back to the stadium at past 12mn.And I know there were still a lot of people waiting in line to go back home...We just kept thinking positively that this game was for a good cause and that we were part of a major baseball history.Plus we were also pretending that we were waiting in line for a disney ride (1hr per ride)during summer but then again there's now the fast track passes w/c could have been great for that night @the dodgers stadium

[JKV]

My family arrived at Dodger Stadium around 5:30. They made it to the game at 8:00, well into the 3rd inning. When driving down the 5, they saw signs indicating that parking lots were full at the Coliseum; thus, they thought they had no choice but to wait for the shuttle. And yes, they had made reservations to ride the shuttle, which seemed to make no difference. There was little to no security or direction at Dodger Stadium. My family indicated that there were still THOUSANDS of people in line behind them. I cannot believe there are not more outraged fans demanding some kind of refund at the most, or an apology at the least! Thankfully, my family rode with friends back to Dodger Stadium after the game.

[Brooke]

We got to the stadium to catch the shuttle at2:30, arrived at the coliseum at 3:30. We had a great time people watching, watching batting practice. The tribute to Vin was worth the trip. Like someone else said Dodger Stadium is home . It was a a lot of fun and I was glad to be part of history. Let's stay at the stadium though. The fun only began when we tried to get the shuttle back home after the game ended. After waiting 45 minutes and probably having atleast another 90 minutes to wait we finally decided to take a cab back to the stadium along with a whole bunch of other people, so much for free parking. It was all part of the adventure though

[downtowner]

Many thanks to all city, Dodger staff and LAPD for the appalling coordination of this event. I did not go to the game, although I am a Red Sox fan. Instead, I
planned my day at the museum. There was barely a human to help with traffic, which had been diverted to the point that if you were'nt going south on Fig, you could'nt get in any of the parking lots. Once in the parking lots, fans crossed and walked in front of you at a 20 minute interval and could have cared less that you were trying to get to the lot to park. Exiting at 5:00 was just as bad. I applaud fundraisers, but think the event planners should find new jobs.

[Pedro]

We arrived at Dodger Stadium at 1:00 pm and immediately got on one of the many shuttles going to the Coliseum. No problems there except the route the driver took seemed like we went out of the way.

The problem was getting home. Because of boorish fan behavior (another story), I took my wife and two kids out of there in the 8th inning. We got in line for the shuttles and spent just over 2 hours waiting to get on a bus. When we were just about there, some Dodger employee in a black varsity jacket with black sleeves was bragging about to no one in particular about how great it was to have a shuttle and how he has moved more people today than Metro.

It was odd how out of touch with the reality of people, regular people, old people, people with kids, etc. waiting over 2 hours in the middle of the night he was. If I found this to be acceptable at my job, and I am a unionized government worker, then even I would have some explaining to do. I am confident there will be no one held accountable for this fiasco.

Mr. McCourt, great idea, poor execution. You have some some good ideas on how to improve the fan experience, but each one, the Coliseum game, zone parking, tiered seating prices, Grady Little, have all been undone by the lack of proper planning and follow-through. You may also be losing legitimate fans in the process.

[Jenn]

If you thought getting there on the shuttle was unorganized, trying to get back on the shuttle was an absolute nightmare! The event staff did absolutely nothing to stop the hundreds of people who cut in to the front of the line and forced their way on to a waiting bus. The hundreds more who patiently waited their turn and stood in line for an hour plus were outraged when the staff began loading buses behind them. Despite that, staff still told to them to continue moving forward where no buses where waiting.

Complaints to both staff and nearby police fell on deaf ears, some even laughed about it. Meanwhile the crowd became more and more angry, pushing and shoving ensued, and nobody would step forward to take charge. We heard plenty of excuses and "I'll call my supervisor" claims but saw no action. I'm surprised that a riot didn't break out. I have never seen a more incompetent group of people trying to organize an event. They're the ones who strongly encourage us all to take the shuttle, what did they expect? They owe everyone a big apology!

[Rob]

I got to Dodger's Stadium around 5:15 and made it by the bottom of the 1st inning. The line was long, but people were in good spirits. Where I think it broke down was the return. this wasn't the Dodgers fault, but the jerks that kept wanting to cut in line (and the people in further in line that let them). These people knew what they were doing and more than once I got in arguments with people trying to move ahead of me. LA Coliseum has a reputation for having jerky people go there (Raiders) and though they were only a few, they were a real pain.

[Ginny]

We arrived at the Coliseum 2-ish, and left at the end of the game. Had a great time, but Dodger Stadium is home.

Alex and I used Metro to get there and to get back. 15 minutes from Downtown, 20 minutes back. No problems at all!

Wouldn't it be nice if we could use the Metro to get all the way up to the stadium?

[LA Giants Fan]

You Dodger fans are such crybabies. At least no one shot each other while waiting for a free ride on a bus.

GO GIANTS

[Charles Freeman]

My buddy and I arrived at 4pm, took one look at the line, turned to each other and said, "To the Coliseum we go!" Took the entrance at Figueroa and 39th and it couldn't have been smoother. It was well worth the $25. The family in front of us had people in their party who rode the shuttle and didn't arrive until 9:10. But you know what, I'm not going to blame the Dodgers/McCourts - they tried to do something spectacular last night and for the most part, it worked. If you got to the stadium by say 5 o'clock, looked at the very, very long lines and still chose to get in them, then shame on you. It was your choice.

[Baseball Andy]

Great atmosphere for a baseball game, kudos on filling the Coliseum. I drove up from San Diego, arrived on the USC campus around 12:30. When attending a game with the projected attendance like yesterday, like a USC football game, get their early, enjoy the Science Center, IMAX movie, or one of the many other museums you have. Make a day of it, and you will not have any traffic problems. Enjoy life and get out more, and in a more timely fashion.

Andy

[Busing vs. public transpo]

Forced busing is always a bad idea!

Remember the long lines when Griffith Observatory reopened last year? This sounds the same.
Why didn't they do shuttles from areas closer to the Coliseum?

[L. Benson]

I had tickets to the game but wound up selling them because of my past experiences with Coliseum traffic. Sounds like bringing my 4 kids would have been a nightmare. Note to city of LA, please visit the city of Pasadena on game day and watch how a large event with lots of people does not have to be a night mare. The Rose Bowl is no perfect is terms of parking, but Pasadena does a much better job of blocking off streets, directing traffic and using tons of shuttle busses to get people to the game. Also to note, Pasadena used the blocked off streets as express roadways for the shuttle busses to get in and out of the Rose Bowl area, brilliant!

[samtana]

Leave anything to the parking lot attendant and the screaming meanie and it all goes to 'hell in a hand basket'. this year will be no different.

[Fitzgerald Gonzalez]

If you got to the stadium after 4pm you were out of luck....I got there before that (3:45pm) and I got to the coliseum at 5:30...I felt horrible for the people that came after me...The line must have been, and I'm not kidding, about a mile long in total length to board the shuttles.

[Mark]

I arrived at Dodger Stadium to catch the Coliseum shuttle at around 5:15. There I encountered a line of people longer than any I've EVER seen. Even worse, there didn't seem to be anyone from the Dodgers organization supervising the situation. After a two hour wait and facing the prospect of another two hour wait after the game, I gave up and went home. This shuttle operation couldn't have been more poorly planned. I think The Dodgers owe me one.

[Gloria Paulsen]

My husband and I arrived at Dodger Stadium at 11:15 am, boarded a waiting bus and departed at 11:34am. We arrived a bit past 12pm at Exposition Park. It seemed to run smoothly but just to make sure we left at the bottom of the sixth inning and waited 45 minutes to board a bus back to Dodger Stadium. There was ONE Dodger staff member guiding buses on Figueroa - a total MESS. I can't imagine what it must have been like for those who waited past the seventh inning.