With three sporting events colliding in South Philadelphia on Tuesday night, experts advised spectators to be patient and use public transportation if possible to attend Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, the Flyers-Canucks game or the Mexico-Germany soccer game.
About 120,000 fans were expected to attend the Flyers’ home opener between Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday – and that doesn’t include staff at the three venues and people who showed up just before the tailgate.
As of Monday, more than 55,000 tickets for Mexico-Germany had been sold. The Phillies’ attendance for Game 1 was 45,936 and the Flyers’ listed capacity at the Wells Fargo Center is 19,600.
By 5 p.m., about an hour before the start of the Flyers game, the extensive parking spaces around the sports complex were filling up. The Broad Street Line, where SEPTA offered free rides, was also booming, and the scene coming out of the NRG station was a vibrant mix of fans and colors: Flyers orange, Phillies red, and lots of Mexico green.
But some fans couldn’t help but drive. So they turned it into a party.
Take Rachel and Kara Burkett from Cherry Hill. Rachel took advantage of her mother’s Christmas and birthday gifts to give her sports-loving wife Phillies playoff tickets. And then she realized that there would be a traffic city in the sports complex.
“As an event planner, someone didn’t think this through,” said Burkett, who said she was concerned — both about traffic and the outcome of the Phils game. “I would pay $600 to see a musical but I know I’ll go home happy, but sports? It could be a bad night.”
The Burketts left their house at 4:30 p.m. and tailgated sandwiches and drinks for an hour before heading to Citizens Bank Park. It took them 45 minutes to reach a parking lot next to the stadium.
Because there is no traffic, Tammie Bieler can usually get from her home in Royersford to Citizens Bank Park in less than an hour.
But it took her almost two hours to get there on Tuesday – even as Beiler, her father, her son and his girlfriend left in the afternoon.
Bieler brought the bare essentials to her tailgate: beer, an energy shot and her phone.
Her friends Erin and Ryan Wood needed a lot more: hoagies, peanut butter sandwiches, chips, pretzels, beer, juice boxes, Goldfish crackers, lollipops and Jolly Ranchers, as well as parkas, Phanatic hats and coloring pages to provide for their children Delaney, 3 , and Ryan Anthony, 6, occupied before the game.
“My bag weighs 75 pounds,” Erin Wood joked.
The Woods, who live in Garnet Valley, picked up the children from school early to minimize the time they spend in traffic. On a good day you can reach the stadium in 25 minutes. On Tuesday there were 45.
“We crawled over the Platt Bridge,” Erin Wood said.
Still, there was a good atmosphere in Citizens Bank’s Parking Lot U, where a parking attendant said fans were arriving as early as 1 p.m. to close the parking gate and avoid traffic.
And throughout the sports complex, the fans all seemed to get along well, which was probably due to the many well-stocked grills along the way.
Across 11th Street, a Mexican soccer fan festival began in the Linc’s north lots at 5 p.m., three hours before kickoff. Well, three hours and 15 minutes. The game was postponed from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. because the teams were stuck in traffic, officials said.
At Citizens Bank Park, Jennifer and Ed Long paced back and forth, even an hour before Aaron Nola threw his first pitch.
The Longs had left their home in Easton, Pennsylvania, around 1 p.m. to ensure they got to the stadium on time. The journey took them two hours, longer than usual.
“Broad Street was bumper to bumper,” Ed Long said even at 3 p.m. “The GPS kept adding time.”
But the two were in great spirits: they said they had a good feeling for the game. And the traffic in South Philadelphia gave them a chance to enjoy the wait outside the ballpark for Game 2 and engage in pregame fun they normally wouldn’t have time for.
“We played cornhole,” Jennifer Long said. “We were listening to a band; They were great.”
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