GO ROYALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mean]

The buses were packed, for sure, but the number of people that drove in (and parked under overpasses, on the shoulder of I-35, on any empty patch of grass they could find) was astounding.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Yeah, it was everything. Coworker tried to get on a bus in Swope Park. They stood in line for 2 hours, realized they still had at least an hour to get on a bus and gave up. Granted, if the streets wouldn't have been so packed, this would be less of an issue.

People were driving in my yard to get around traffic afterwards. People called my wife a bitch multiple times for saving a spot in front of our house where it wouldn't have been legal for those people to park without a permit anyway. Not the best day to live downtown.

As a reference, I've been in Vancouver for the Celebration of Light which supposedly gets 500,000 people to downtown and the trains weren't even that crowded. Just shows how important a robust public transportation system is.

[flyingember]

Mayor says 800,000 people

3 arrests today
Probably was theft but this means there were few major, noticeable crimes

[pash]

.

[brewcrew1000]

There were people walking all the way from SW Blvd and Mission as well as Westport Rd and SW trafficway.

I think the problem is that there are few ways to get into downtown because of rivers, hills and railroads. The parade should have went downtown to the plaza to give people greater access

[Highlander]

Not the best day to live downtown.

As a reference, I've been in Vancouver for the Celebration of Light which supposedly gets 500,000 people to downtown and the trains weren't even that crowded. Just shows how important a robust public transportation system is.

I think the issue is expectations. If you regularly get 500,000 people to a festival, you are prepared. If you get 800,000 people downtown once in the city's history, there's no way to be prepared. Even a good PT system by US standards other than NYC, would have been overwhelmed.

[flyingember]

The pope got 1.0 million people. Philadelphia shut down much of the city, including major river bridges, with months for planning. People knew about the event 6 months in advance.

This was an absolutely huge event to be scheduled within two days of an arbitrary date.

[earthling]

And sounded like only 200K were expected today.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Of course with the streetcars running down Main Street in the future it might be quite impossible to have an event like this at US next year.

[shinatoo]

Of course with the streetcars running down Main Street in the future it might be quite impossible to have an event like this at US next year.

Why?

[bobbyhawks]

Why is that? They shut down the normal bus routes. Why couldn't they shut down the streetcar? Or go down Grand and end up at US? Zero reason why they couldn't do the same thing.

[herrfrank]

I think the issue is expectations. If you regularly get 500,000 people to a festival, you are prepared. If you get 800,000 people downtown once in the city's history, there's no way to be prepared. Even a good PT system by US standards other than NYC, would have been overwhelmed.

This event was way beyond what KC can handle with such a short lead time for preparations. I was on the 28th floor of 1KC looking south down Main Street, watching the crowds and traffic grow from 8am until Noon, when my group finally abandoned ship for a brief look at the parade (had to walk north to 8th to cross to the slightly less crowded east side of Oak for a glimpse).

As a former New Yorker, I realized pretty quickly that the crowds had been significantly underestimated and underplanned. The simple barriers and shortage of foot-patrols along the route could have resulted in tragedy had trouble broken out. KC is so fortunate that the crowds were well-behaved and in upbeat spirits. The sun burning off the morning fog helped also.

After 30 minutes, I made my way back to the Auditorium garage and wended via 13th street onto I-35 south. I-35 and SW Trafficway were at capacity but moving. Cars were being parked left and right on median strips and shoulders. This could have turned into a disaster like the 1978 Boston blizzard, where people run out of gas, abandon vehicles everywhere, and complete gridlock ensues. I detoured through midtown at 39th then through the Plaza, both crowded with pedestrians and cars. I didn't see "normal" traffic volumes again until I got to Brookside, where I watched the rally on TV in a local watering hole.

KC is lucky this went well. 750,000 people trying to scramble to high ground in Penn Valley Park is not ever going to have a warm and fuzzy outcome, despite even the most optimistic event planning. I don't know where KC can host an event of this size, and I think it is beyond fortunate that the day went as well as it did.

[scooterj]

A couple of side effects of the crush of people that I discovered last night when I tried to go out to celebrate my birthday after everything quieted down: some bars were pretty much cleaned out of alcohol, and no cash remained in any of the downtown ATMs I tried. I'll have to try again to celebrate next week, I guess!

[flyingember]

I don't know where KC can host an event of this size, and I think it is beyond fortunate that the day went as well as it did.

Swope Park is about the only part of town with enough space, and it would be more of a nightmare to get people to.

moving up into Penn Valley Park might have worked out better. The area between Broadway and Main, north of the dog park might have more space than the crowd filled

[mean]

Pretty sure this event was beyond anything KC could handle even if they had planned it for six months and spent a lot more money. There's just not adequate transportation infrastructure to get THAT many people into and out of downtown, and there's really no reason for there to be because there is no realistic scenario where that many people will be coming downtown at the same time again barring another Chiefs or Royals championship. Even if subsequent events like this were guaranteed to occur, it'd be impossible to justify setting up a rail network with that kind of capacity, or building the massive road and parking infrastructure that would be required when it'd be used so infrequently.

Although I do hope that the massive traffic snarls gets the huge number of younger people present at the event thinking, "We could really use some alternatives here..."

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Running the route from the Plaza to Union Station would have helped a bit, I think. That way people that just wanted to see the parade could have gone to Midtown/Plaza and people that wanted to see the rally could have gone downtown. As it was, everyone had to squeeze into a 1.5 square mile area.

[flyingember]

Starting at the Plaza, heading north and looping around downtown and ending at Union Station would be the best route in retrospect.

A rally also could do what many big events do and setup remove viewing locations. Mill Creek Park, for example. 20,000 people watching a large screen with the parade and rally would make sense.

But I can see how that's hard to setup with one business day to do it.

MLB needs to change the rules to be one week or the first weekend, whichever comes later. So cities have more time to plan. Two days is way too short.
Imagine what the crowd would have been like in Chicago if the Cubs had won.
---------------------

On rail,

a bigger transit system won't move everyone, but it doesn't have to.

Say the rail system runs 1.5 trains per mile.
So a UMKC to NE 32nd Line would have 15 trains going at once during peak hours.

Run the system as non-stop express for the event. That easily puts a train from each end to Union Station in 10-15 minutes. Drop off, get priority service all the way to UMKC in 5 minutes, back to US to drop off, get priority service to the northern terminus.
So each train can do three drop-offs in an hour. That's 450 people
450 * 15 = 6750 per hour
* 5 hours = 33750. That's 1 in 25 people that could ride transit direct to downtown.

And yes, all those people will still need parking, but they'll be parking across more of the city reducing congestion in any one given area.

With the same number of busses, and no bus dropping off at the train, it's nearly a 15% increase in transit into downtown.
That's 150,000 using transit instead of 100,000. 1 in 4 vs 1 in 5 would make a noticeable difference.

To increase bus capacity, move all JoCo busses to Metcalf, Shawnee Mission Parkway, SW Tfwy and do what the air show does, turn one side of the street into bus only.
For east side busses, Truman Road could be the same way for a long distance

[aknowledgeableperson]

Remaking the team has begun. Rios and Guthrie had their option years bought out. Don't think either case is a big surprise to anyone. $22.5M in payroll saved.

[mean]

A different route would have helped some, but I contend that there is no reasonable infrastructure upgrade that would have made getting that many people in and out NOT be a logistical nightmare. The edge could have been taken off in any number of ways, no doubt, but that was an UNBELIEVABLE number of people. And for all the headaches with traffic and massively overcrowded streets, it was awesome.

As for Rios and Guthrie, yeah, that's no surprise. I think I'm the only person in town who will miss Rios and wished he'd have been able to bounce back sooner after the injury. He had a pretty clutch October though.

[earthling]

When Royals won 1985, the crowds may have been distributed between two big parties - the after game party jammed packed from Crown Center to Plaza and then the official parade, which I hear seemed to be more of a family thing at the time. It also may have made a difference that Royals didn't win at home this time, a lot more wanting to go to the single event (as well as KC metro now larger and unusually nice weather yesterday).