A Cricket Wireless Amphitheater employee offers a second point of view about the Police concert traffic mess

I worked at that concert, and I have worked several others at the same venue, and the parking problems always come down to the same issues, and while the Chula Vista PD often takes the blame, it has nothing to do with them.

First, the PD directs traffic to the parking lot, but the entrance to the lot and parking itself, where the backup usually stems from, is controlled by a few kids that are hired because they are inexpensive, not because they have any real skill or training at what they do (in fact, they are so inexpensive that sometimes they "charge" for parking when parking is free, putting the money in their pockets). To add to that, they bring the minimum number of them in to further save money. This is allowed because the company that contracts to control the parking costs keeps the costs low for the venue. (It's the same company that was used before live nation, with the same people running it). As long as people keep coming, there is no reason for them to increase costs and do things right.

Second, I know the concert attendees will hate this, but it seems that a lot of people going to the show think they are special. Go where the traffic officer/parking lot attendant waves you and stop holding up the line to ask questions, or demand to park in a different lot than where they are sending you, you are holding everyone else up. If the lane you are in has cones making you turn right, TURN RIGHT! If there are cones thru the entire turn, you have a dedicated lane. DON'T STOP, KEEP MOVING! They know that on the way in, you want to go to the concert, and on the way out, you want to go to the freeway. If you go where you are told, you will get there, even if it's not the way you are used to going.

Third, the venue is a business. They have a "premier" parking lot that you have to pay to park in. In order to get you to use that lot, they unneccessarily wind traffic past the lot entrance to give everyone the "opportunity" to pay to park, which further slows things down as people stop to pay or ask questions.

Third, again, attendees tend to act like lemmings. There are three lanes going into the concert, but unless there is someone there to hold their hands, everyone sits and waits in the far right lane instead of using everything available. On the way out, they set up for three lanes to get on the freeway, but again, everyone would rather sit and wait in the far right lane.

Last, don't wait till the last minute! You can't park all 19,000+ people in the last 30 minutes before the show starts even if the parking staff was fully staffed.

And as for the Police concert, the Police were partly to blame for the problems during the exit as they left the stage before the time that had been planned for, and the parking crews were not set up or prepared when the show ended.