A&M officials encourage fans to plan ahead, allow extra time before Saturday's kickoff
The Eagle
By Chelsea Katz
Published: September 3, 2021
Texas A&M Athletic Field Manager Craig Potts fills in red paint on Kyle Field on Thursday in preparation for Saturday’s 7 p.m. game against Kent State.
– Photo by Michael Miller
The Aggies will return to Kyle Field on Saturday, and with the first game of the season comes traffic and a return of tailgating.
The key is to plan ahead, Peter Lange, associate vice president of Texas A&M Transportation Services, said in a Texas A&M Today article.
The department advised community members not attending the game to avoid driving on Wellborn Road and George Bush Drive due to the increased gameday traffic.
Unlike previous years, Aggie Park between University Center Garage and The Association of Former Students building will not be open for tailgating due to ongoing construction to redevelop the site.
Lots 47, 50, 51, 18, 73, 98, 110, 113 and Fan Field will be available for tailgaters, along with other “open access sites.” Those open access sites are classified on the Texas A&M athletics site as “any tailgating areas that are outside of the 15-feet distance from designated parking lots and are not tied to parking privileges.”
For people attending the game and not tailgating, gameday parking can be purchased via ParkMobile. Cash lots are available for $20 at Fan Field off Enterprise Avenue and in lots on Agronomy Road, in the Polo Road Garage and in lots near the Bonfire Memorial, according to Lynn Wiggs, associate director of Texas A&M Transportation Services.
Texas A&M will not be using parking permit hangtags, so anyone with a parking permit should log into their parking account at transport.tamu.edu and screenshot or print out their parking barcode at the bottom of the page. The license plate linked to the permits should match the vehicle being driven to the game, according to Texas A&M Today.
Officials with Transportation Services advise people to arrive early and expect longer lines with the new system.
Road closures around the Memorial Student Center, on Houston Street and near Reed Arena and West Campus Garage will begin at 3 p.m., four hours before kickoff. On Coke Street, traffic will be diverted back to George Bush Drive, beginning four hours before the game, if they do not have a D permit or disabled placard.
Road closures will begin again near the start of the fourth quarter to prepare for postgame traffic.
Destination Aggieland, which is in the Texas A&M mobile app, will have traffic, shuttle and parking information.
Gameday shuttles will begin operating three hours before kickoff and continue until one hour after the game.
Mobility impaired parking is located in Lot 88 in the General Services Complex, and a shuttle will take fans from the lot to the Hotel and Conference Center across from Kyle Field. A shuttle will pick up guests from Lots 47, 50 and 51, from lots on Agronomy and Stotzer, from Reed Arena and Olsen Field lots and from Lubbock Street off-campus apartments, dropping off at the MSC.
A shuttle will begin picking up guests at the Bush Library parking lot five hours before the game and continue one hour afterward.
The only park-and-ride shuttle this season will run between Downtown Bryan – Regent Street between 26th and 27th Streets – and Kyle Field. The shuttles are free to use and many will run during the game. Downtown Bryan parking lots are free.
On campus, Veo bikes – both traditional bicycles and pedal-free electric bikes – will be available to use. According to Texas A&M Today, the pedal-free electric Veo Cosmos bikes will throttle down in congested areas. Riders are also asked to dismount their bikes in the “no wheels zones” near the stadium.
At the game
The game is expected to be at full capacity with more than 100,000 fans in the stands.
Saturday’s game will serve to kick off the 2021 season and the 100th season of the 12th Man. Deemed the Standing for America game, the university also will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, by recreating the patriotic display seen at the 2001 Red, White and Blue game.
Red, white and blue “Standing for America” shirts are being sold, and fans are asked to wear red, white or blue, depending on their ticket location. A graphic on the Standing for America page on the 12th Man website shows the lower sections will wear blue, the middle sections will be in white and the upper third deck seats will be in red.
“Whether 100 years or 20 years, this remembrance moment is a true testament of the power and spirit of the 12th Man standing both for gameday and for our country,” the Standing for America page states, noting the ideas were presented to the athletic department by the student leadership.
At halftime, fans will hear a new voice introducing the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band forming at the north end of Kyle Field after Col. Jay Brewer retired from his position as the band’s senior associate director in the spring.
Russell Tipton, who is succeeding Brewer as the senior associate director of bands at A&M, will say a modified version of those iconic words people have heard for 40 years.
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