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Tools For Parking At Rays' First Game: Hiking Shoes

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By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8

Published: October 1, 2008

Going to the Trop for the first postseason game in Rays history?

A word of advice from St. Petersburg officials: Plan to arrive early if you are driving.

The 7,000 parking spaces at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg are expected to fill up quickly for today's playoff game between the Rays and the White Sox. Set aside extra time to get through traffic and hunt for a parking space. The city will add electronic signs along the interstate and major roads, said Joe Kubicki, St. Petersburg's director of transportation and parking.

More than 25 businesses applied for temporary permits from the city to open their private lots to Rays' fans. That will add 2,000 spaces within walking distance to the Trop. The city issued green signs to designate them as permitted lots. Most of these private lots will charge about $20.

City officials originally planned for the games to be in the evening, so this week's announcement that
today's game will be at 2:30 p.m. brought some last-minute changes. "It has caused us to retool a little bit because some of the parking downtown is going to be occupied by people working downtown, but there's more than ample parking in the downtown area to accommodate the event," Kubicki said.

He said there are 25,000 spaces available within a mile of the Trop.

Central Avenue between 11th and 15th streets will be closed for a street party. Kubicki recommends fans head downtown for parking.

The walk from the South Core Parking garage on Second Street South to Tropicana Field is about a mile. The city will provide free transportation from the parking garage to the Trop. Nine trolleys will start picking up Rays fans 2 1/2 hours before the game.

To learn more about game-day parking, go here.

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