Discouraging driving is a good thing and the children of the planet will thank us for it. I recommend everyone look up the phrase “induced demand” with regards to cars.
The ratio is 11 to 1 compared to an average ratio of your examples that is 5.3 to 1. Your figure of 4,150, which represents indicated seating if a 5.3 ratio, is not relevant at all. We know the seating will be 22,000. Not really as simple as that. How many of the 2,000 will actually be available for fans and how many for other users? Are the examples you listed comparable? What is the mix of fans driving versus fans using public transportation? How many nearby but off-site parking facilities are there? An outlying stadium accessible only via highways and with no surrounding parking would have different needs than a downtown one serving a primarily urban fanbase. Although 2,000 seems low,I do not feel I know how many spaces is a reasonable number.
It’s not really discouraging…more like annoying. Hard to imagine folks in burbs riding bikes to a Metra station, training to Union and walking to the Fire Station. Oh wait, it is discouraging…discouraging attendance!
Land in the city is far more valuable than land in the suburbs. It shouldn’t be wasted on vast amounts of parking and the city’s resources should be focused on the city’s needs, not the suburbs.
I’m surprised such a good thing as a new, urban stadium with easy transportation links proximally located is causing some to pine for what the Bears envision in Arlington Heights. While tailgating is fun and cheap and communal, the Fire experience going forward will be more akin to most global soccer experiences—bars, walking, and public transit. We can still meet up beforehand in the neighborhood or elsewhere and take the L. No one has to spend $19 for a beer in-stadium. Many an urban NCAA football experience will be similar to this. My alma mater, BC, is very similar. They have two parking structures (no tailgating) and an extremely limited grassy area where you can sort of tailgate for an hour before the game and two hours after, but the spots cost upwards of $600, so it’s not very economical. Most people just go to bars in Boston and take the T to the stadium. It’s a culture shift for us I’d say, but one more aligned to typical soccer experiences around the world.
a) parking garages are effective use of space and not that expensive to build. b) demographically speaking the Fire likely draw more attendees from the burbs than from true city folk. c) with a large clean slate it's silly not to include plans for a volume of cars d) the public trans is inadequate. Not quite as bad as city folk using public trans to TP/SG, but it's in that category of 'discouraging'.
The arguing over minutiae months before the ground breaking and years before anything comes to fruition, is peak BigSoccer!
What else can we discuss? We've beat ball sucking mods and rubber dicks into the ground years ago. (ba dum tiss)
While they're mostly a mile or more away there are many thousands of downtown parking spots that are unused on Saturday evenings. Not to mention empty UIC lots aren't far away. I'm less concerned about the ability to park than the ability to tailgate. For comparison, a cursory plot of parking around The 78 and Wrigley Field.
We should be tearing down parking structures. This is asinine. Currently we have three train lines that drop off two blocks from the site. The northside, Southside, west side and near southwest all have one train to the site. This doesn’t even include buses that will most likely service the area. Park in oak park and take the green line.
If there was a relatively convenient, relatively quick, and relatively economical shuttle from Union Station that maybe makes a stop in the "entertainment district" on the way to the stadium I wouldn't have to drive at all. If only Metra ran relatively convenient schedules on game days/nights. If I have to drive to the Forest Park or Midway stop just to park in a skeezy CTA lot and take the El I'd pay that $35-45 and drive all the way to the stadium. Just let us have supporters tailgates like we're used to.
Your number is the number of spaces “needed” to achieve the “average”. As I mentioned, different situations have different needs so the “average” probably does not represent what is appropriate for this stadium.
We need below average but other transit options to fill in the gap. Keep the pollution it if the city.