Car park chaos

Waiting at the bottom gate pontefract road exit.We could see traffic flowing freely presently a young steward arrived to inform us they were not going to open it.We then went back up the car park to the top gate,eventually we managed to exit the gate.We were then directed Right onto Grove St toward the academy buildings.Then up Belgrave Rd which is a residential Street and a bottleneck.Eventually arriving on Pontefract Rd which was flowing freely.Which begs the question. Why weren`t we allowed to exit the car park onto Pontefract Rd in the first place? Could it possibly have been due to the thousands of away fans exiting the away car park onto Ponte Rd

 

The gate at the bottom of the Ponty car park shouldn't have been shut. Fans had to cram through the single file gate.

 

There is a way of coming out of the top gate, avoiding the stewards and driving down grove street

 

Because the people organising it are useless and anyone parking at the ground that's not doing so out of absolute necessity is a crack addled maniac.

 

By the time i got there someone had pushed it open, young lady car park person was shaping to close it again, ‘good luck with that’ I thought.

 

We waited around 5 minutes and then exited in an orderly fashion through the middle gate (Gate D) onto Grove St, turned left, down the road to Ponty Road and were on Ponty road within a minute. No idea why they weren't allowing exit from the bottom gates, but given that only the top half of the car park was in use, it was a decent guess that it would the case.

 

Thankfully I chose to go via the east stand exit and was out in about 20 mins once the fans had cleared the ground.

 

The Middle gate was closed.Grove St was coned off at the top gate no left turn.

 

Yes because they can't organise a piss up in a brewery and have made the Oakwell area more dangerous as a result with fans circumventing the road closures by weaving around residential roads. The club ARE aware of that issue and so are the council yet they both do nothing

 

I rarely see many use it tbf.

I park at the top of the car park as I’m a helper, and it’s just easier to get sorted and into the ground, but I think the vast majority of those parking facing towards the club and exit via the top gate are generally not intending to go towards Ponty Rd. They all seem to head up the hill.

 

I didn't stay for the penalties but as I walked away, the gates were open & no traffic restrictions from the car park.

 

Oakwell & Barnsley FC - treating the 'customer' with contempt from the minute you set foot on the premises, to the minute you leave.

 

How strange. Does that mean it was open and they closed it again or that it was closed and they eventually opened it. I didn't appear to be waiting very long. Most cats parked up at the top end appeared to be pointing towards the stand and I assume expected to be heading out right and up Belgrove Road. But the bottom rows were pointing the other way and lined up to exit via the centre exit. I was out and on my way for 5 past 6.

 

That was only the tabbies. I saw a few black and white one’s who didn’t look bothered, just sitting around, licking their bits.

 

The club have just been putting obstacles after obstacles in place for a couple of years now, it’s like they are discouraging folk from attending. What’s the point anymore.

 

Daft rule especially on days like today when it was less than half the usual attendance.

 

Chaotic at the top end too. I pulled out of the Disabled Zone and up the wide roadway behind the Ponty End. There were kids of about 15 milling around. One stood in front to stop me and then rapped on the window to tell me to reverse off the road into an empty space as they had to keep that free “for any emergency vehicles that might need to go down it”. The match was over, the crowd had gone, and we sat there waiting until these kids started playing around with cones letting a few out at a time. All directed right and up into the bottleneck at the top of the hill. We got kicked off the car park behind ESL two or more years ago so emergency vehicles could access it. Every week the experience in that car park gets worse. Don’t get me on about closing the gates at 2-30 either.

 

Maybe I just got lucky. I don't understand how they can make exiting a car park such hard work after a crowd of 4801 and with a car park less than half full.

 

We're treated with contempt from arriving to leaving. We used to always park at the club till about 5 years ago - rather give the club my money. But it's so awful to get out that we now park down at the disabled riding school, despite it being a longer walk.