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Impacts of the home football game on Thursday, Nov. 18

Dear Members of the UW Community:

On Thursday, Nov. 18, starting at 5 p.m., the University will play its final home football game of the season against UCLA in Husky Stadium. A mid-week game is highly unusual and results from the University accepting an invitation last April from ESPN to televise the contest to a national audience. We accepted the invitation, but only after careful consideration of the impacts on the University and our community. It will be very challenging to have 70,000 spectators in the afternoon fill Husky Stadium, in addition to the 70,000 people who populate our University every day. It will also be an opportunity for a national audience to view our University and our team.

A great deal of planning has gone into developing a transportation plan to minimize the impact of the game on the academic and clinical programs going on that day. Our goal is to bring as many spectators as possible to the stadium using buses and alternative means of transportation and to have them arrive several hours prior to game time, thus minimizing interference with normal rush-hour traffic. Post-game traffic will occur after rush-hour congestion has subsided. The greatest impacts will be on campus parking, particularly in east campus, and our transportation office has been working hard to absorb the additional parking demand.

As part of the planning for this event, we would like to ask students, faculty and staff to consider alternative means of transportation on November 18 and to consider alternative work schedules when possible to help reduce the campus’ use of parking spaces and possibly reduce the number of people coming to campus. You will be receiving more information from transportation services and human resources with suggested alternatives and options for helping to manage traffic and parking on Nov. 18.

No amount of planning will totally eliminate the congestion we expect and the inconvenience it may cause for many of you. We apologize for this and ask for your cooperation and patience. We can all help to minimize the disruption and contribute to making the day a successful one for our University community.

Sincerely,

Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President

Scott Woodward
Director of Athletics