Bastrop, Tx–High school football fans who plan to catch the Bastrop-Pflugerville game Friday at Bastrop’s new 8,000-seat stadium on Texas 21 west of town should plan to head out a little earlier, school officials said this week. At the same time they vowed to improve stadium operations to get drivers off the highway more quickly, send them to parking areas with more dispatch and provide better services at ticket booths, concession stands and related amenities.
When the stadium opened for its first event Sept. 4, the game traffic and crowd–estimated at more than 6,500–were plagued by circumstances which backed up traffic along Texas 71 for miles near game time and left some fans stuck in parking lots for up to two hours trying to head home afterward.
Traffic was especially heavy that evening, perhaps because the event fell on a holiday weekend–the Friday before Labor Day. It was also a stormy night–rain and lightning forced the game to be canceled before halftime. And most folks had never been to the stadium before, making the site unfamiliar.
Henry Gideon, director of operations for the Bastrop school district, said parking arrangements have been tweaked to get autos off the highway more quickly before game time and to ease the flow away from the stadium afterward. Added staff and volunteers will be on hand to help direct the flow, he said.
Deputies with the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Department will help control traffic from Texas 21 to and from the new stadium.
Kick-off time is 7:30 p.m.
The Texas Department of Transportation is constructing turn lanes on Texas 21 to help move traffic to and from the stadium, but that work will not be completed until about mid October. School officials paid TxDOT $600,000 to add the stadium turn lanes in 2007, but the work did not begin until after the Sept. 4 game.