WHILE West Indies fans may have experienced pleasure inside the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) in Tarouba on Wednesday night, for hundreds of them, getting to and from the venue was a painful experience.
With parking restrictions introduced around the BLCA, organisers implemented a park-and-ride system for ticket-holders at the South Park Mall car park, San Fernando, and the Petrotrin Refinery Grounds, Gasparillo.
However, the initiative proved to be a logistical nightmare, prompting the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to issue an apology and promise to address the identified gaps.
Even before a ball was bowled on Wednesday night, users of the park and ride complained about issues with its implementation.
On Wednesday, early arriving fans were not shy to vent their frustration with the park-and-ride process at the South Park facility, in particular.
One patron who didn’t give his name told the Express: “First thing, the traffic to reach to the venue was problematic; you could take more than an hour; (then) you reach to the venue, you have nowhere to park.”
He said: “It have no volunteers, no one directing anything. You see how they were saying they have police and soldiers? No, we didn’t see any of that at the park and ride, not even a security guard. So you have about three volunteers for the whole park.
“You have about nine buses, so surprisingly…the Trinidadian public, everybody line up and wait, so whoever reach first line up first. But when the buses came, nobody there to tell you anything, so people just board as you wish. It’s a good idea and a good concept, but the execution was poor.”
Another user of the South Park venue who arrived around 5.30 p.m. said: “I think they centralised it (park and ride) a little too much and brought it too close to the stadium.”
He also noted there was a lack of direction for people waiting to board the shuttle buses.
“I landed where a shuttle stopped, but there was no line per se…I could see chaos brewing because there were hundreds of persons with no lines. I just happened to be lucky to get the next shuttle that came. But there were persons waiting there long before me, but the shuttle stopped in front of me.”
Having got inside the stadium, however, the problems did not end for some spectators.
One fan observed: “Yuh pay for standard-plus tickets, it have standard section and it have a mound, and it have scanning by the road and yuh sit down wherever. The standard-plus where yuh paying $585 for a ticket, yuh come and the (players’) dugout in front of you, the lower seat, you can’t see the ground. And if they put you on the wider seat, you can’t see the game; so good ideas, but the execution was terrible.”
And Amral, another fan who arrived early, pointed to another issue that caused frustration.
“What I find very disturbing is that every time we have international games, we have to wait very long to open a gate. So you advertise that you open at 5.30 and the Fire Services can’t finish their checks; and at 5.31 and 5.50 and 5.51, it was still closed. That, for me, is very unprofessional.”
And he summed up the early Tarouba experience this way:
“If we in the Caribbean want to lift our standards, we need to meet that higher standard, and the (West Indies) board needs to be involved and ensure all the local boards follow suit. This wouldn’t happen in another country. It hurts my heart to know we can’t do it well the first time.”
But even as the nail-biting game ended after midnight, the issues with the park and ride did not dissipate.
Several hundred people decided to leave the BLCA on foot because of the situation.
“You can’t tell people to park and take a shuttle and then you have no park for them. To me, it was really kinda distasteful. It was sad,” related one attendee named Russell, who used the South Park facility.
Rowley reacts
Asked his views on the problems experienced on Wednesday at the post-Cabinet media conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley acknowledged the issues associated with accessing the BLCA and said he was hopeful that future measures would eliminate the difficulties.
“Fortunately, the one good thing about it is that there is space around the venue to allow for more infrastructure to be built, and I’m hoping that in the not-too-distant future, what you saw last night and the inconveniences there would be a thing of the past, and we can get in easily and get out easily,” he said.
LOC apologises
The LOC’s director of operations, Omar Khan, said all the issues are being addressed.
“There were challenges,” Khan admitted yesterday.
“It’s the first game of the World Cup (in Trinidad)…but I think at the end of the day, we have identified those (challenges) and we are working feverishly and assiduously to improve and to correct those situations that we knew didn’t go correct yesterday (Wednesday).”
Khan stressed that, “the whole seating arrangement, the traffic management and the park and ride situation, all those are being addressed, so we want to give the assurance to the public that those areas are all being addressed, and we are working feverishly to address and correct them, even for today’s (Thursday night’s) game, from this evening”.
Through a release by the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) yesterday, the LOC said it “acknowledges and apologises to fans for the challenges they faced in being transported to and from the venue—especially the delays in the shuttle service—and in accessing the venue”.
“In addition, some patrons opted to walk to the parking zones after leaving the venue due to the turnaround time of repeat shuttle trips,” it said.
The LOC said it met with the various agencies involved in the park-and-ride system, reviewed the day’s proceedings, and was working diligently to address the gaps identified on Wednesday evening.
“This includes enhancing traffic management, as well as ensuring the public adheres to the processes for parking and accessing BLCA. In addition, the LOC asks patrons to exercise patience in accessing the shuttles provided for their convenience when departing the venue.
“All spectators will be accommodated on this service. However, due to the volume of patrons, some users may have a wait time for the next available shuttle. Every effort is being made to minimise wait times and venue access,” it said.
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