There’s a season here for DCU too. If you don’t continue to improve your product, people aren’t going to come. They’ve been good, haven’t won the title their regular season record indicated they should have. They haven’t replaced Henry. They just sold their best young player with no replacement in sight. Their stadium isn’t super accessible so any failings are magnified.
Yesterday in one of the west restrooms and a urinal and half the sinks were broken. Pretty careless to not get them fixed by game time.
yesterday the lines for the mens room was so long we contemplated using the ladies room which had no line....
Previously I've taken Metro to L'Enfant Plaza and then the 74 Bus to Audi Field. Yesterday with nice weather and an afternoon game, I used the Water Taxi from Old Towne Torpedo Factory to Marina at the bottom of Nats Park. Nice ride of about 40 minutes with 10 minutes to Audi Field. And gets you there more than 30 minutes before kick-off. And getting there back in time for the ride back was no problem. But it is pricey at $25+ for a round trip. And then parking. I'll go back to my original path.
Yeah, it's a great ride, but the price is unworkable. The whole family took the taxi last year for the "experience" which cost us $100+. Never again.
Wow. I've never seen a women's room line at any event before where their line WASN'T longer than the men's room line! That's just crazy!
The men's room in the southwest corner has long lines but moves fast because it's big. Don't wait for the restrooms on the west side because they are tiny - like six urinals.
Except that is the price for the ride to DCU games or Nats games, it's not the regular water taxi to the Waterfront. This is a round trip from Old Town to a dock near AF and Nats Park.
$25 doesn't seem too out of line to me for a round trip boat ride from Old Town to DC. It's not exactly the Staten Island Ferry (meaning a high-volume commuter route). I'd be surprised if it is very profitable. I don't come from that direction but if I did I could see doing it a few times a season just as an extra treat. It is a pretty awesome way to go to a game.
I think you're right. I've used it twice, once with the family and once last season when recovering from eye surgery and not trusting my depth perception to drive. It is a beautiful ride -- and both time had maybe 10 people on it. The larger question is would ridership increase if the price dropped? 10 people = $250, but those boats can carry probably six to seven times that number at least. Would you get more revenue if the price was less? For a single person, the water taxi is cheaper than parking -- the killer is that it's $25 per person, not $30 (or whatever) per carload. Now, if they charged say $40 or $50 per group (not sure how you would define it), then it becomes an economically competitive alternative to driving and parking.
My expenses were compounded by the crowd on a sunny Easter Sunday afternoon. If I could find cheaper or free parking, I would do this more often.
Sunday is free parking in DC. You could have literally parked anywhere on the street. Depending on how far you are willing to walk and where you think it's safe to leave your car. Thx, Jay!
It's a little cheaper to the Wharf. $20 on weekends. Which is nice if you want to stop there, have a drink or two, and then walk along the water to the game (until you have to go around Ft McNair, and this year you have to go around the Phase 2 construction) or take one of the buses. You can also get a season pass if you do it a lot.
The season pass does not apply to the Audi Field water taxi. Also, the water taxis from the wharf back to Alexandria stop running before the end of night games. It's not a reliable option.