Post by TheShadow on Sept 25, 2005 10:10:26 GMT -5
www.mercurynews.com
SOME RAIDER FANS SHUT OUT AT BART LOT
By Dan Reed
Mercury News
Don't get too ambitious if you plan on tailgating in the BART Coliseum station parking lot for the next Oakland Raiders home game. Or you might get a visit from the BART police.
Some fans -- after forking over $15 to get in -- couldn't find a parking spot before Sunday night's game against the Kansas City Chiefs because ambitious parties spilled over into several spaces.
Tasty meats and snacks were where cars should've been. Starting with the next home game, Sunday, Oct. 2, against the Dallas Cowboys, BART cops will be on party patrol.
``BART police will be setting limits,'' spokesman Jim Allison said Monday. But no defined ``parameters have been set just yet.''
That wasn't the only problem Sunday night. The parking contractor was turning people away -- yelling the lot was full -- near the 5:30 p.m. kickoff time even as many slots were opening up as tailgaters folded their tents to go inside.
The transit agency contracts with Parking Concepts Inc. of San Francisco and makes a tidy sum on the parking. BART pays the company a flat fee of $725 to manage the 1,013 spaces. It keeps the rest, which can be more than $10,000.
For more than five years BART has had the authority to charge for parking at events at which more than 30,000 people are expected.
That means all Raider home games and a few Oakland A's baseball games.
One hundred and fifty spaces -- marked by signs -- at the north end of the lot are set aside for BART riders. Enforcement is left up to BART police, although there is no ticket checking or validation.
``I don't know how strictly enforced it is,'' said Allison. ``I imagine if you show up dressed like that gladiator guy and walk toward the Coliseum, it's obvious you're not riding BART.''