First game at Reliant Stadium tonight against Miami at 7:00 on Ch. 13. Like I really need to remind you people. GO TEXANS!!
f the Texans after last night...someone should have had the balls to delay the start after seeing the traffic around the stadium. It wasn't a late arriving crowd, it was an early arriving crowd that couldn't find parking.
back in march, 1999, i attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the stadium. there, i talked to columnist ken hoffman about the dome and its proximity to the new stadium (for those who haven't been, reliant park extends all the way to the dome's exterior sidewalk) and how there was no way it could survive because it's taking up prime parking real estate. i mean, even then you could tell parking was going to be a cluster. hoffman agreed, but said it would be a touchy issue. after all the b****ing from last night, i doubt it'll be near as touchy 2 and 1/2 years later. i don't think the dome will make it past 2003 (barring the olympics choosing houston), and it wouldn't shock me if that announcement came this season. it's simply in the way.
I hope the Olympic Committee saw what happened last night. There is no way Houston should get the games. Reliant Park cannot handle the traffic.
Give me a break. One game proves that we can't handle the traffic 10 years from now? Give the Texans a chance to change things. Maybe they can get more cash only lots, or set up a shuttle system. Something will be done. We're not the only stadium that has had parking nightmares for the first game.
I'm not talking about the parking problems and the lack of police which should be solved soon, I'm talking about the congestion around Reliant Park. Shuttles will do little as most people prefer to drive their own cars instead of riding a bus. Like I said in the other thread, what is the point of having 26,000 + parking spaces when it takes more than 1 hour (I'm giving a generous estimate) to park and leave? Something has to be done to make it easier to get in and out of Reliant. I don't think the traffic problem will be solved easily.
Getting rid of the Dome won't solve ANYTHING. The problem wasn't lack of parking. The problem was GETTING TO the parking. I was stuck on Buffalo Speedway for almost an hour and a half. Once I got on to Main it took 15 minutes or so to get into the parking area (yellow lot). They need some kind of system to keep traffic flowing at a reasonable rate. Then you'll see the commute times decrease sharply.
I thought the Texans announcing Gary Walker's name first last night in the pre-game ceremony was very symbolic, seeing as though he was a member of the Houston Oilers before the move. That was a nice move that targeted the emotions of the more die-hard former Oilers fans like myself. I didn't go to the game, but did drive by Reliant Stadium yesterday morning to take a look. I just could not get over how incredibly huge that thing is. It's unreal. Great stadium.
