Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Chili Cook-off & No Dogs Suggestion
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Old 02-04-2012, 11:52 PM
NJblue NJblue is offline
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This was the worst managed event I have ever attended. The way the access road and parking were set up made it impossible for those of us in the back "corral" to get out. When I first went back to my car there were about 10-15 cars ahead of me trying to work their way to the exit road. Unfortunately, there were still people trying to come in and they blocked our access to the exit road which was also the entrance road. The person assigned to keep traffic moving did nothing to create an alternate flow to allow everyone a chance to get on to the road - so, there we sat not moving an inch. After about 30 minutes I gave up my spot in line (by now there were probably 30 cars trying to get out), parked my car and tried to find someone to help.

I walked all the way back up to Buena Vista talking to each yellow-vested person to find out who was in charge. They all pointed at someone else. I finally found someone with a yellow hat on who was supposed to be a "group leader". He was up near the exit where they had things under control (meaning that those who parked there were getting out at our expense.) At first he blew me off by pointing at the traffic that was being allowed to merge onto the road around him and said things were going fairly well. When I impressed upon him that back up the line that no one was getting out at all, he at first wouldn't believe me, but I seemed to finally make an impession on him, such that he got into his golf cart as if to go check the situation out.

Thinking that the situation would be fixed I made my way back to the car. When I got there, it was now an hour later and still no one from the parking corral had moved. The cars that were behind me when I got out of line were still in the exact same place. I waited about 5 or 10 minutes for "yellow cap" to show up and get things moving. He never did. I then went out and found another supervisor (one who I had also spoken to before) and insisted that he come to our "corral" and see for himself that nothing was moving. By this time nearly everyone in that corral was in their cars trying to get out and no one was. Finally the second supervisor did show up and we eventually started to move. My net time trying to escape the polo grounds was an hour an a half.

I have been to football games with over 100,000 people there and Manhattan when all the Broadway shows were letting out and I have never had such a hard time getting home. The polo grounds seem like a perfect venue for large events like this because of their size, but unless they do something to provide better access and egress, I will never go near an event held there again.