On Thursday, UH student and faculty will be inconvenienced again when the campus parking lots are overrun by fans coming for the Houston Dynamo’s playoff match against the Philadelphia Union.
To many students this might not seem like a big deal — it’s not like the Texans are coming. But the Dynamo have drawn an average of more than 17,000 fans this season for home games. Since this is a playoff match, it’s safe to assume that even more fans with Dynamo fever will show up.
When there are Dynamo games at Robertson on Sunday nights, the campus becomes unnavigable — and that’s when the campus is usually free of students.
Parking and Transportation Services has tried to assuage this by allowing student to still park in most of the parking lots, but now they will have to compete with over 17,000 fans for spots that are already hard enough to get.
The entire stadium lot will be closed to students and faculty at 2 p.m. The bulk of lots that students use will be fair game after 4 p.m. as well. This is a terrible time for the parking lots to transition from UH students to soccer crazies. The roads on campus are congested enough at that hour, and I-45 is always a mess.
When parking lots were made available to fans for the UH-Rice game last week, it was different. It was much more defensible. That was for a UH event featuring UH student-athletes that attracted a large number of UH students.
How will UH students, faculty and staff benefit from the inconvenience of allowing Dynamo fans to park in their spaces? Is knowing the Houston Dynamo graced the pitch of Robertson Stadium enough of a reward? No. How much is the University benefiting financially from this? What is their incentive to make a bad situation worse — even if it is just for an afternoon?
Parking and Transportation Services should think a little more about the University’s students and less about whatever financial benefit this silly game will net them.
Perhaps it's part of our contract with them.
We're saying goodbye to the Dynamo once they get their shiny new stadium built anyway…
Good riddance.
"How much is the University benefiting financially from this?"
What, specifically, prevents the school newspaper from finding this out?
I'm a proud UH Cougar and a proud Houston Dynamo fan too. We should be thankful we had the Dynamo, after all, they did contribute to Robertson's big new scoreboard. Support Houston sports!
Quit crying !! The Dynamo bringing home another championship for our.city us.more important than your parking lot ! If it wasnt for the money they are bringing in your high ass tuition would be higher !
Quit crying !! The Dynamo bringing home another championship for our.city us.more important than your parking lot ! If it wasnt for the money they are bringing in your high ass tuition would be higher !
After reading today's edition of the daily cougar, as usual, I found myself feeling extremely upset at this article. Whoever wrote this article clearly does not appreciate the talent in our local MLS team and the potential they have to win another championship! " Parking and Transportation should think a little more" about the "benefits of this silly game," really? I do not know how much the Houston Dynamo pay for access to the facilities including Robertson Stadium and the practice field, but I am certain it is a large sum of money! Certainly, UH is not giving them free access! Under normal circumstances, Dynamo play does not affect student parking because they play on weekends, but to say that this weekday game will be a "nightmare" is ridiculous. This game is not just a regular season, but a playoff game! As such an important game for the Dynamo, the UH community should be more supportive because having the Dynamo play on our stadium draws a lot of attention to the university, not just to their organization. It is only fair to assume that should the Texans make the playoffs, Texans fans will also be "crazies" showing up to support the game, so why not Dynamo fans without being called out for it. And as far as I am concerned, students should have received an email that says that after 4pm we are allowed to park at both parking garages because of the game. I sure hope Texans press do not demonstrate the same support that we are showing toward the Dynamo, if we ever have to play at Reliant Stadium. Enough ranting for now, GO DYNAMO!!!
First and foremost, the mission of the university is education. Anything that disrupts that process needs to be carefully considered. I teach a course on Thurs. afternoon. Less than 1/2 the class showed up because of concerns about parking due to the game. This is on the heals of the parking fiasco/nightmare with the UH/Rice game the week before. OK UH/Rice game is one thing…I'll admit it was good to see the UH community back its team…but MLS is NOT part of the UH mission. It's great the Dynamo is doing well, I hope the win the championship, I think they should have taken a back seat to us and our mission.
First and foremost, the mission of the university is education. Anything that disrupts that process needs to be carefully considered. I teach a course on Thurs. afternoon. Less than 1/2 the class showed up because of concerns about parking due to the game. This is on the heals of the parking fiasco/nightmare with the UH/Rice game the week before. OK UH/Rice game is one thing…I'll admit it was good to see the UH community back its team…but MLS is NOT part of the UH mission. It's great the Dynamo is doing well, I hope the win the championship, I think they should have taken a back seat to us and our mission.