The New London Day's Mike DiMaurio on the traffic mess Friday:

greg's blog says:
The other lane on Wisconsin Ave is totally empty, make it two lanes from New Park Ave up to Stott Ave and from Stott Ave to Dodd! They did it 15 years ago after the Opening Day mess in 1995 and they continued doing it for about 5 years after that especially for Yankee rehabs and Friday night fireworks. And have cars use all three entrances into Dodd off Stott Ave (yes that means the aux. parking lot being used).

The Day - They haven't learned from their mistakes at Dodd - still | News from southeastern Connecticut

My response (edited) to him in the reader comments of his column:

"For those of us with long memories, the Navigators did learn from their mistakes and when some future "big" events" did occur at Dodd i.e. the David Cone and Irabu rehabs, shuttle buses from Computer Sciences Corp. on the corner of New Park Ave and Wisconsin were used and also a two lane approach on Wisconsin Ave and Stoot Ave was used going in an and leaving.
Friday fireworks nights and Saturday/Sunday games always had that two lane approach when the Navs were really pulling them in also back in the day; same with the Double A All-Star Game in 2002.
Mike, I think you're missing a player here in your piece and that's the role of the Norwich Stadium Authority--where were they in this mess Friday night? It's NOT up to the Norwich Police Department to solve the traffic mess if they are not alerted and called out.
I'd also rip up whatever "deal" there is with those folks on Plain Hill Road--15 years is long enough for something that happens once or twice a year!"


Re: the Connecticut Tigers. The traffic woes did come up at the Mystic meeting the team had with fans based partly off a pictured posted here on the blog and I did make some of the above points re: shuttle buses and the two lane approach to Dodd to them. The traffic deal was something GM Andrew Weber and I touched on briefly yesterday. Dates I'd circle on the Tigers schedule would be the home opener, all weekend games and the fireworks deal on 7/3/10.
As I said posted earlier last week it front of Friday's game--plan on leaving early for those dates and you won't have a problem.
I left my place at 5:45, ticket in hand, and spent maybe 10 minutes on Wisconsin and Stott from 6:10-6:20.

Another note for the Tigers, that I saw being done yesterday by the NCAA: set up a couple of tables between the admin offices and the ticket windows for just cash sales for those "big" dates when heavy walk ups are expected. Take the pressure off the windows when God forbid a terminal goes down or someone calls out sick or you are just flat out out numbered. Navigators did something similar as well and this was a point made at the Mystic fan meeting. One of DiMaurio's readers commetted on that re: Friday's first game. The NCAA event at Dodd is providing the CT Tigers folks with a great shakedown for their upcoming season.
Yet another point for the Tigers re: parking. Since you are charging for parking consider free season parking passes for those fans who also purchase 10 game flex passes to move the line of cars a lot quicker to theoir parking spots.