ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: HALE SHEIKERZ STAFF WRITER
note: below
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on September 20, 1996.
The map of Virginia Tech football parking in Thursday's paper
included incorrect information. Washington Street will be closed for
Saturday's game to drivers lacking special parking permits. Lot 1, the
lot next to Cassell Coliseum, can be entered from Washington Street by
those who have the permit.
AS 40,000 FANS descend on Blacksburg Saturday, officers will be looking for parking and alcohol violations.
It will be a mad race for a parking space at Virginia Tech's first home football game Saturday against Rutgers University.
More than 40,000 people are expected for the noon game at Lane Stadium, the majority of them out-of-towners driving to the game.
When the fans arrive, they will find some of their accustomed parking lots and even an entire street gone - buried beneath construction projects under way at Tech's athletic complex.
They will also find more police patrolling the parking lots to crack down on illegal drinking at tailgate parties, particularly underage drinking and drunken behavior.
Tech's success on the football field has added to the parking pressure this year as 1,000 new members joined the Hokie Club by donating money to Tech's athletic program, according to university officials.
Hokie Club members and season ticket holders receive designated parking spots near Lane Stadium - but many will find themselves assigned to different lots.
The general public and students have been shifted farther out from the stadium to several of Tech's mega-parking lots.
The most noticeable change is the popular Litton Reaves lot, between West Campus and Duck Pond drives off Washington Street, which will be blocked off for use by Hokie Club members rather than the general public.
These fans will be directed to the "I" lot, also know as "The Cage''; the overflow parking lot near Duck Pond Drive; the parking lots behind Derring and Pamplin halls; and the huge commuter lot off Prices Fork Road. No shuttle buses will be provided.
Police are asking the general public to enter campus from Prices Fork Road, turning onto West Campus Drive, rather than using the main Virginia Tech exit off U.S. 460 Bypass. (The Prices Fork Road exit is just north of the Tech exit off the bypass.)
Tech police with assistance from state police and the Virginia Department of Transportation will monitor traffic from Interstate 81 to the Tech campus throughout the morning and after the game, according to Tech police Chief Mike Jones.
"I expect the first game to be a real challenge, but we will make it work and get everyone in," Jones said.
He suggested that people get to the campus and be parked no later than 10:30 a.m.
Tech police received a $5,000 increase in security funding for each football game and will have approximately 65 officers from Tech, the Blacksburg Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police, as well as ABC agents, patrolling the parking lots and stands. Previously, 25 to 40 officers would attend each game.
In recent years, the university has received complaints about obnoxious students and alumni who scream, curse, fight and throw things both in the stadium and in the parking lots.
Hokie Club members and season ticket holders will be able to drink legally - if discretely - at tailgates in their designated lots because the Hokie Club has received a banquet license from the state Alcohol Beverage Control Department. Although alcoholic beverages will not be sold, the permit will allow club members and season ticket holders to bring their own drinks.
This is the second season that the Hokie Club has applied for an ABC permit, said Lu Merritt, director of development for intercollegiate athletics. Merritt said ABC agents will patrol the designated lots and ask people to conceal their drinks by using cups rather than bottles and cans.
Drinking is not legal in other parking lots. Enforcement, however, will focus on under-age drinking and obnoxious behavior, according to university officials.
"It's time to take some action," said Jones, but added that the enforcement was not intended to interfere with anyone's enjoyment of the game.
Student groups such as the Student Government Association also are considering applying for ABC permits for later games to allow legal drinking by their members.
The athletic department will patrol parking lots designated for Hokie Club members and season ticket holders starting at 5 p.m. Friday. Staring at 9 a.m. Saturday, traffic lights between Christiansburg and Blacksburg will be on flashing except at Virginia 114. Traffic lights will flash after the game until traffic clears. For radio updates, 1610 AM will have traffic information about specific parking areas on campus and AM 530 will have info about traffic on I-81.
In addition to football traffic, there also will be increased traffic Saturday for the Wilderness Trail Festival in downtown Christiansburg. Portions of West Main Street in Christiansburg will be closed for the festival. State transportation officials recommend people driving north on I-81 should use Exit 118 onto U.S. 460 rather than Exit 114.
Between 15,500 and 16,000 season tickets will be sold by Saturday's game, up from 13,912 sold during the 1995 season, said Tom McNeer, athletic ticket manager.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: map and chart - Virgina Tech Football Parking colorby CNBSTAFF KEYWORDS: FOOTBALL MGR