When attending a sporting event, the parking lot can be a place of great despair. The long walk to and from the stadium, surrounded by sweaty strangers babbling nonsense about the away team isn’t fun for anyone. If the team you came to see wins, you’re stuck in traffic on the way out, trying to tell everyone about the instant-classic of a game that they missed over the noise of car horns and drunken yells. If the team loses, there is nothing like the awkward silence that comes along with the wait back to the highway. Maybe a nearby bar is a good option to drown the sorrow, but driving to a bar to be forced to take a cab home seems like a waste of gas. If only there were other options…
If the bright minds of the sporting world can take a step back from things and pick up on a genius move from music festivals, the answer could be just down the road.
Recently, personal transportation services like Uber and Lyft have made deals with numerous music festivals to provide transportation for these events. Uber has signed a contract with over 20 festivals to provide direct transportation coverage for events through the LiveNation app. With Uber breaking through, bidding wars are sure to begin with festivals and these companies, as they not only reduce parking and potential parking lot issues, but they also provide a safe ride home for festivalgoers who may not be in a proper condition to drive.
Sporting events provide an avenue that fits this scheme incredibly well with weekly, if not more frequent, games to cover. Similarly to these music festivals, fans are numerous and often partake in drinking alcohol. Alongside intoxicants, with a fan being at a game for upwards of four hours or more, fatigue can often become a factor. With services like Uber and Lyft on standby, these fans now have a dependable ride home to ensure that they aren’t endangering themselves or anyone else on their trip out of the stadium.
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The benefits of having on-demand rides at sporting events are staggering. After the obvious safety precautions on the road are considered, the risk of having a car damaged or burglarized plummets. Every less car in the parking lot at the stadium frees up more space for drivers who may have already purchased their parking or simply opted away from an Uber or Lyft. The more fans that are shuttled to the stadium marks a huge drop in commute times once at the stadium, lowering the number of customers fumbling for cash or asking for directions.
Looking at this situation on a more personal level, all the scenarios discussed above clear themselves up a bit when a personal chauffeur is involved. If the team wins, the driver can surely enjoy the full recap as much as any friend or family member. If a loss happens (to some other team… Not your favorite team, of course) then the driver provides a safe and responsive avenue to vent to, without disproving Facebook comments to wake up to.
If after a long game, the thing that sounds best is some hot food from anywhere other than a stadium, the professionals from Uber and Lyft can surely swing for whatever burger or burrito is available at the time. If the crowds are the biggest issue, getting dropped off at the gate on the ticket seems like the best way to get around the mob of undesirables that could have been parking lot neighbors. Parking costs have deterred fans for years, but depending on proximity to a stadium, a ride to the game and home could end up costing fans less than gas and parking to attend in their personal vehicles.
AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, currently has parking that can be purchased in advance for around $15, but with a Lyft promo code and a relatively close proximity, a fan could get chartered to the game by a professional for less than a one-time parking voucher that brings all of that inherent risk along with it.
From the standpoint of the stadiums, parking is a necessary source of income, but they have less to fear if a contract was in place with a transportation service. Regardless of what amenities are available, some fans have routines that they love to stick with. Season ticket parking is going nowhere, fans that commute from other towns aren’t going to hitch a ride from hours away, and other team supporters are simply going to be too unsure to give something new a chance. Parking lots are not going to become a thing of the past by any means, but nobody has been on their way out of a stadium and wished that there was more traffic.
Cab companies have been openly against services like Uber and Lyft since their inception, but the fact of the matter is that Uber and Lyft are better. Uber and Lyft are cheaper, more personable cabs that give a pleasant experience that goes along with getting a ride. The whole idea of personal transportation services like these meshes so well with the sport-fan experience, and making things easier to get home when the fun is over grants teams a way to improve the atmosphere at their venues.
Striking up a fair deal with a transportation service would allow teams to create a partnership that lets the organization get their money off the top. In terms of the agreement, in theory, the service would pay the organization a fee to be able to be on standby at the games, and the organization uses that profit to cover a decrease in parking revenue. With the service paying to be there, the ball falls back into their court, with rides being from any number of indeterminate distances. Once the service has given enough rides to recoup the fee agreed upon with the team, then a stream of steady, somewhat predictable profit begins to develop.
A potential partnership also creates a marketing goldmine. With transportation services gaining potentially massive profits from the crowds, advertisement opportunities increase as well. More television commercials and billboards mean more business away from the stadiums, creating a more comprehensive brand awareness. Stadiums and services can offer unique deals in relation to each other, such as promo codes for free or discounted rides for the first time traveling in relation to the stadium, or a small discount on game tickets for fans who schedule a ride with the service in advance. Developing relationships between both sides could create a situation where Uber or Lyft becomes the “official transportation sponsor” of a team in a local market and potentially for a league on a more broad scale.
Uber and Lyft have taken over transportation in cities worldwide. Creating contracts with sporting venues would allow fans a simpler way to commute between their homes and their favorite stadiums, reducing clutter in parking lots, and providing a boost to the local economy. The more work for the drivers puts more money in the pockets of citizens in the area, and an avenue like a sports stadium might just be the best place to spend that cash. If a deal can be constructed and agreed upon to get the wheels rolling, other teams are sure to take note and Uber and Lyft could be in for the rides of their lives.