This year the NFL made an unprecedented decision for Super Bowl 48 that there would be no cars allowed and that the fans would enter and exit the stadium on shuttle trains.  One severe consequence of this was that there was no tailgating allowed at this year’s super bowl which was disheartening to many fans.

However, the worst consequence from this decision was yet to come.  Due to the fact that upwards of 35000 people usually commute to the super bowl by cars that leaves a lot of extra fans that need to be accounted for in the transit system.  These excess passengers were not factored in and that led to huge delays in fans exiting the stadium.  It took most fans over an hour and a half just to wait in the line to get on the train after the game.  When travel time, metro transfers, and taxi rides are added in that equals another hour that the fans are waiting to get back to their hotels.  Many fans did not even get back until one in the morning.

This new plan of mass transit that was implemented was well-intentioned, but a disaster as the stadium was not equipped with nearly enough trains to accommodate the 80000 that were at the super bowl.   The fans were miserable due to the freezing temperatures that they had to endure for over an hour and ambitious vendors.  One man was walking around selling hot chocolate for 20 dollars a cup which is just outrageous.  Supply and demand is one thing, but that is just unjust that the stadium gets to profit on the fans demand just because they failed to supply adequate transportation.

This decision was bad from the start and the NFL should have seen that and made a change.  For one, the weather, and secondly, hosting the super bowl in New Jersey and not allowing any cars is logistically a horrible idea.  The transit system was not designed for transporting such a large quantity of people and that is what caused delays.  When dealing with a huge event such as the super bowl there needs to be a lot more time and consideration put into logistics in order to ensure there are not tens of thousands of angry fans.