Parking situation for at Binkley Garage for the football game against Washington State on Saturday. (Rebecca Hanna/The Daily Campus)

Football games at SMU bring Mustang fanfare to the community and an opportunity for outsiders to taste SMU’s culture. Not easily noticeable is the effort to meet the parking needs of the SMU population, as well as the thousands of football fans. Planning parking for 35,000 spectators on a sold-out game is not an easy task, according to SMU’s Athletics Department.

The Athletics Department collaborated with Park ‘n Pony to come up with a parking program for both the SMU community and visitors.

“100 percent parking on campus provides only 90 percent of the required parking for a sold-out game,” said Tom Buning, senior associate athletic director. “We have to ask students to park in relocation lots.”  

This means that students have to move their vehicles from their normal parking areas to Airline and Heroy parking lots.”It may inconvenience some students for six days in a year, but it is an opportunity for us to be good hosts. During football games, we all wear SMU,” Buning said. “The reputation of SMU is reflected by how we all pull together. We all benefit when it is done right.”

The department communicates to the campus community through e-mails, fliers and other forms in advance of the game day. For instance, parking details for Saturday’s home game against Washington State were released days in advance.

Vehicles had to be moved from identified locations by 11:00 p.m. Friday night in order to avoid getting towed.  

Free parking locations around campus have also been identified for those without parking permits.

Some students have voiced concern over relocating their vehicles on game days.

Guy Cockrum  lives on campus and normally parks in the Binkley garage.

“I have to move my car to the north side on Friday and then get it out before Monday morning whenever there is a game. This is annoying,” Cockrum said

Cockrum suggests that the best way would be for students with parking permits to park in their assigned lots even during game days.

Hannah Rittenberry, who also resides on campus, said she has not had any problem with parking during game days.

“If you read your e-mail, you can’t miss the information you need regarding parking,” she said.

Another campus resident, Josh Davis,  said that his car was towed two weeks ago when SMU played against UAB.  

“I always park there,” he said. “That Saturday morning, when I came back, all cars were gone.”

Davis said he was not aware that he needed to move his car and had to call four different places before he found someone who was able to tell him where his car was.

Parking plans for the upcoming SMU versus TCU game, which will be televised nationally on ESPN, are in high gear.

The Athletics Department is sending out information to the SMU community to ensure that both residents and visitors are aware of their parking options.