LSU raises parking pass prices (now $75 to $100 per game)

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We wanted to control that area better

LSU is again increasing the cost to park in many areas on campus for football game days and also reserving more parking for season ticket holders to buy.

The parking prices are going up by nearly 90 percent in one area.

The affected regions on campus are parking lots west of Alex Box Stadium, at the site of the old Alex Box, by Thomas Boyd Hall parking near the Memorial Tower and the previously handicapped parking (Lot M) east of the Maddox Fieldhouse.

Season ticket holders were recently notified they have until March 31 to reserve parking passes for the new areas for the 2012 season only. The costs range from $75 to $100 per game for car parking and $250 to $500 per game for recreational vehicle parking. But the parking can only be purchased for the entire season, which features eight home games this year.

"We think we'll sell all the non-renewable parking," LSU Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications Herb Vincent said Tuesday. "We think we'll fill it up."

But some LSU fans say the cost changes will force them to tailgate farther away or stop altogether.

Ryan Smith, of Baton Rouge, and his family have tailgated by Thomas Boyd Hall for more than 30 years, he said, and now will have to find somewhere else. Two years ago, the Boyd Hall parking was free and last year it became $40 per game on a first-come, first-serve basis. Now, it will cost $600 to park there for the season and only season ticket holders can buy the passes.

"It's a shame," Smith said. "The way it sounds to me is they (athletics officials) don't want the average fan to tailgate anymore, at least not anywhere near the stadium."

Setting up a tailgate often requires parking two vehicles in the lot, he said.

Vincent said the decision was made to reserve that lot for season ticket holders because it was the least-used lot last year for $40 parking.

Last year, LSU started a new movement to charge for parking in most lots west of Highland Road on campus. That included lots on River Road (Levee Lot) and Gourrier Avenue (Hayfield Lot), plus a parking lot on the golf course Old Front Nine.

"I don't think tailgating has suffered," Vincent said. "I think people have adjusted to it."

Although there were some complaints last year that the "atmosphere" on game days dipped, Vincent said, that only applied to smaller non-conference games.

"We wanted to control that area better, and we saw some ways to raise our revenues without touching ticket prices," Vincent said.

LSU has one of the only athletic departments in the nation that is financially self-sustaining and takes no student fees.

Much of the extra parking revenues have gone to adding more portable toilets for tailgating areas and to cleanup costs, Vincent said.