Jeff Lurie= Dan Snyder?

Jeff Lurie is doing his best Dan Snyder impersonation with the Eagles’ new parking/tailgate rules.  Snyder, of course, is the Redskins owner who presides over the most cockamamie stadium parking lot in the NFL -  with limited spaces, color-coded sections requiring specific permits, and cash lots so far away that fans have to take shuttles to FedEx Field.

 

As the Daily News reports, “The Eagles have decreed that tailgaters may no longer set up tables or tents or pay to reserve the space next to their cars. If you want to tailgate, you now have to do it behind your car, standing in the parking-lot lanes where other fans are driving by. Some fun. On top of all that, the Eagles increased the price from $11 to $20 for cars and from $20 to $40 for RVs to park in one of those lots.”

 

As an Eagles fan who tailgates with a group of buddies in an RV and pays for an extra adjoining parking space to set up our grills, tables, chairs, and Beirut table, I will tell you that that this new rule has the potential to backfire. Big Time. I understand the imperative to increase the traffic flow into the lots. But forcing tailgaters to all congregate in the lanes means that it will be more difficult for cars to navigate the lots and thus backup traffic – in the parking lots themselves and eventually spilling out onto the street. And that doesn’t even take into account the very questionable safety of such a system. Pedestrians + roughhousing + game playing + alcohol + cars = a deadly mix. And the Eagles are penalizing fans willing to pay for what they use – in some cases two parking spots – rather than own up to their own inadequacy in providing sufficient parking around the stadium.

 

I think I speak for many fans when I suggest that Jeff Lurie and the Eagles concern themselves more with the disastrous egress of fans and cars AFTER games rather than before them. It is inexplicable that a stadium located at the locus of so many major highways continues to have gridlocked traffic two to three hours after the game has ended.

 

As one friend told me, the Eagles really need to watch themselves. They are flush and full right now, but things can change. Indeed. It was less than ten years ago that Veterans Stadium was not sold out and season tickets were easily available. Donovan McNabb fixed that. But as we are all aware, McNabb won’t play forever. Can Kevin Kolb similarly fill seats and the win column? We shall see.