What happens when you build a brand-new stadium with 37,000 seats and only have parking spaces for 5,700 cars? Miami Marlins fans just found out. Miami Herald:
Congratulations, Marlins fans, you have a beautiful ballpark. Good luck getting there — and finding a place to park your car.
For fans driving to the ballpark Wednesday night, a wreck on the Dolphin Expressway was only half the headache. For the first time since the complex was unveiled last weekend, fans came to grips with the reality of a 37,000-seat venue with fewer than 6,000 on-site parking spots.
The result: an hour-long scavenger hunt to find remote lots, and the hassle of snagging a seat on one of the city’s brand-new trolleys.
Marlins partisans spent Thursday kvetching about the situation on local talk radio and Twitter. A major gripe is that the four on-property garages are set aside for advanced-paying VIPs, team employees and news media. Anyone else is on their own.
Said Danny Pou of Miami: “The parking situation really stinks.”
When asked if he had trouble finding a spot Wednesday, Mike Ohanyere tweeted: “I definitely did. It took an hour and a half for me to find parking. I didn’t have prepaid parking.”