Letter From Joe Alleva regarding the parking for 2011

Dear Tiger Fan,

This week we announced a change in game day parking procedures for LSU home football games. Beginning next year, there will be a charge to park in most lots west of Highland Road on the LSU campus on football game days in order to offset financial losses caused by budget cuts to the university and to provide additional services to fans.
These are difficult financial times for the university. The financial problems for higher education in Louisiana are well documented. The financial difficulties for the university also affect the athletic department. During the most recent mid-year budget cut for instance, the athletic department was required to take on an additional $1.4 million in costs for which we had not budgeted in the current year. The athletic department also pays all scholarship costs including both resident and non-resident fees and these fees are projected to increase at least 10 percent every year over the next several years.

In addition, we intend to invest funds back into the tailgating experience. As tailgating in the heart of campus has grown in recent years, so have the demands on clean-up costs, restroom facilities and maintenance of the appearance of campus for the other six days of the week.

The tailgating experience at LSU is second to none, and that is why we structured this new policy so that fans can continue to park in the same place and tailgate with the same family and friends they have for years. If we had made these lots reserved paid parking, we would have had to distribute permits based on the LSU Priority Point System. But with a first-come, first-served and game-to-game policy, fans can tailgate just as they have in the past. This change in policy does not affect the areas east of Highland Road and the Kirby Smith parking lot so fans will still be provided the opportunity to have free parking while attending the game.

Yes, there are logistics to work out between now and next football season. LSU has not sold game-to-game parking in the past, but other schools have done it for many years. So we will study their policies and adapt them to our campus to ensure that traffic flows smoothly and that any change to the tailgating experience is minimized.

There are nearly ten months to go before the 2011 season opener, but we felt it was important to communicate this change to you now. We will be distributing flyers on campus this weekend to vehicles in the affected lots, and you can find more information at LSUsports.net/2011parking.

As always, we welcome your comments at athletics@lsu.edu. Unfortunately we cannot answer every e-mail we receive, but please be assured they are all read.

Geaux Tigers!


Joe Alleva

Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics