Well, I can't answer why they hate you. But its clear they do. I'm not sure if the Fire are the responsible ones or if Bridgeview/The management company of Toyota Park is responsible. Either way, I'd send them a letter, but I know I would get a response from either, so I'm going to bitch about it here. At this moment, over an hour after the game ended, I wouldn't be surprised to here if people are still waiting in the TP parking lot, waiting to get out. For some reason, they decided not to have the Harlem entrance open at the beginning of end of game, meaning all traffic would pass through the entrance on 71st. I understand that the game was not a big draw. They may have been about 6,000 in attendance. However, when the team promotes this game and wants fans to come, then they should offer them satisfactory service. But they essentially said "F U" to their fans that showed up, on a weeknight no less, when many of them work the next morning, by having such a disaster at parking. Upon exiting, to get past the gate, it was essentially down to one lane. It took me longer to get out tonight than it does when the stadium is near capacity. It is reasons like this that I avoid these types of games (non league games) and sometimes weeknight or late games. Well, Seattle is about to beat Dallas, so I guess Toyota Park can be happy that they don't have to show up for another game. [/rant]
The TP parking situation is usually horrible. From the west lot we got out really quick tonight (and we actually ended up going down to Harlem), but par for the course with them screwing something up.
OP said it all. Embarrassed to bring new people to the games at this point. When will the excuses and incompetence end? After 10 years? 20 years?
The main problem was there was a train that blocked 79th for a while. That will be fixed once they put the underpass in. I was able to enter from northbound Harlem by taking the side road under Harlem. After the game, I got out in less than 10 minutes.
I was caught in the chaos as well. And I was in the Club post game for at least 20 minutes. Seriously it was something like 12 lanes merging into 1. I remember that type of anarchy in 2006 and that was exiting on to Harlem with nobody to even direct traffic. Maybe if they would've opened the entrance gate to have those turn left on 71st towards Harlem... No that would be too easy...
I saw the huge line to get out of the east lot and turned around and drove past the S8 tailgate area into the west lot and got out there just fine with no line whatsoever. It was either that or ram down the chain link fence.
Or visit the good people at the Fire Station Pub, 63rd and Harlem, before and after the game. Its a pleasant 20 minute stroll which avoids the parking lot altogether. We even had a perfect 2 minute gap between trains to cross the tracks at the north end of the lot. http://www.yelp.com/map/fire-station-pub-summit-argo
I'd suggest you do write a letter to both entities. It wouldn't take long, and maybe you would get a response. It can't hurt, and perhaps it would help. If you don't get a response, that's something to bring up at the next town hall with management.
I never understood this thinking. If you don't think you will get a response by telling them, what makes you think you will get one by posting to a website? You should send the letter. Even if they don't respond someone will probably read it. Why? Because, who sends letters anymore? People should complain, parking management is terrible there.
Complaints communicated by patrons serve to greatly increase the likelihood of corrective actions, and reminding them of their commitments is a fine and noble thing. Write the letters folks, or your just whining at your fellow fans, which accomplishes nothing.
Was this after the Fire game or after the game they let the season tix holders into the cool peoples room to watch the second game? Cause the 10 minute train was right on schedule as the final whistle blew.
I don't expect a response by posting on here. I just wanted to rant and share my frustration with fellow fans. And I have sent e-mails as well as letters in the past and have received either no response or a canned response. The customer service at the club is severely lacking and its part of the reason why fans aren't coming back.
After the Fire game. They had maybe three gates open to get out, all onto 71st, and I saw only one with traffic directors. That, combined with the trains on 71st, resulted in gridlock! If there is any kind of schedule to those trains, stadium management should get their hands on it. If trains are scheduled for when the game is over, arrangements should be made to have that Harlem frontage road exit open, as it bypasses the trains.
I did actually write two emails. One with a concern and one with accolades. I do, wholeheartedly, encourage everyone here to step up and raise issues. Remember, if it happened to you it's probably happening to others. We're all involved enough to care, a lot of others will simply walk away forever. One City, One Club. Personally, I really embrace that phrase. It may be a marketing slogan to some, but it's true.
If our slogan is One City, One Club, wouldn't that city be Bridgeview? Maybe it should be One City, 151 Suburbs, 1 club. Anyway, I do think it's more effective to complain in a public forum than to write a letter. Because it broadens the number of people who know about a problem. I know as a business owner, a complaint letter would worry me a bit, but a complaint on Yelp would worry me a lot more. We don't actually have any dissatisfied customers, so I'm speaking hypothetically.
Let's be honest. Having more people know about a problem doesn't help if they're not the ones that can fix the problem. Stadium location smack talk is tired.
I'm not saying that the Fire hasn't earned their share of blame this year for all sorts of things, but as far as I can recall, Bridgeview owns the stadium and Bridgeview police is responsible for traffic control. They are the ones you should be writing.
Except that we're clients of the Fire, not Bridgeview or Toyota Park. The Fire are the intermediary. If you go to a Bears game at the city of Chicago owned and operated Soldier Field, you lodge your complaint with the Bears. The same goes for the Fire. I do think now is a good a time as any to test the strength of a customer service charter. Andrew made a few waves about it back in the day. We have a mechanism to revise it if it falls short. If it succeeds, all the better.
Nice artist's rendition of how the underpass will look (in attached link) http://www.bridgeviews.net/2011/06/groundbreaking-june-20-for-71st-street.html The project is part of Create, designated as GS14, one of the few actually funded and underway (second link shows the status of a number of the Chicago area Create projects) http://www.createprogram.org/linked_files/status_map.pdf No where, though, could I find an estimated time of completion, and I don't see much going on at 71st and the tracks!
It is awesome that there are soccer ball designs on sides of the underpass. My only complaint is that why do they need an underpass when there is only ONE CAR and one pedestrian? It seems like a bit of overkill for a single car. Also, it looks like the car has stopped to solicit/pick up the pedestrian, a male prostitution location??? Great find, Lizzie.
Why would complaining to the Fire solve anything when they have neither the authority, nor the expertise to solve the problem. Cripes, they're in the business of being a professional soccer team and an entertainment outlet, and they don't even have the expertise to do that this year? Look, I can't speak for what happened on Tuesday because I wasn't there....sounds like that was a one game screwup. But one of the longest running, tired, stupid gripes about Toyota Park is how long it takes to get out of the parking lot after the game, and the fact is that anyone who took one class in operations management would realize that they're in a no win situation. Think about it - you have three and a quarter routes away from Toyota Park - North on Harlem, South on Harlem, and West on 71st street. And the west on 71st street route is blocked...25% of the time by a train. I'll give a quarter route for east on 71st, which winds you back down to 79th. All of those routes average a stop light about every half mile, save the quarter route option. Now, if everyone's solution is to open more exits out of the parking lot...let's say way create six more exits and have them open....where are those cars going to go? Nowhere. You're just relocating the same jam and you're causing the same mess. The only way to solve the problem (besides building the underpass, which will help somewhat...I've done the 71st street enter/exit about 98.3% of my trips to TP is to have every single light be green on Harlem up to 55 and down to 294. That would effectively kill east-west traffic on 63rd, 79th, 87th, and 55th, which will send the villages into an uproar, but will cut the exit time significantly. Or, you can accept that you built the stadium in a congested neighborhood ala Wrigley (with warehouses replacing the bars) and that it's just gonna take a long time to get out of the lot because you don't have the ability to get right back onto a highway like Soldier Field, the Cell, Rosemizon, and so on. The thing I sometimes wonder is...would it be better had they stuck with the original locale at 79th and Harlem? It would've been a longer haul for anyone coming down from 55, but a much quicker shot to 294 via 79th or Harlem. But do you think Andy Haputmann really understands this? Or cares to? No. And frankly, I'd rather he worry about fixing the problem between the white lines and not in the parking lot.