L.A. Sports Equinox is here: 5 home games and major league traffic congestion
Los Angeles loves being the center of attention.
And when it comes to sports, the next few hours are going to be about as good as it gets, with five of L.A.’s professional sports teams playing home games. Four of those events — including the Game 5 of the World Series — will occur in a relatively small and typically congested section of central L.A. between Dodger Stadium and the Coliseum.
What to expect
12:30 p.m. The Kings host the New York Rangers at Staples Center.
1:25 p.m. The Rams host the Green Bay Packers at the Coliseum.
1:30 p.m. The Galaxy host the Houston Dynamo at StubHub Center in Carson.
5:09 p.m. The Dodgers host the Boston Red Sox at Dodger Stadium.
6:30 p.m. The Clippers host the Washington Wizards at Staples Center.
What about traffic?
Traffic in and around downtown L.A. has been jammed since before noon because of other events at the convention center and L.A. Live. The 110, 101 and 10 freeways can get bad even on a non-equinox Sunday. But officials urge motorists to be patient. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation will have officers on the street to help direct traffic.
The 110, 5 and 110 freeways were jammed into Los Angeles, as were roads around the Coliseum and Staples Center.
Can you go to all the games?
It depends how much you like traffic.
At least two men claim they will try to attend all five.
Branimir Kvartuc and Doane Liu hope to set some sort of world record, estimating their attempt will cost $700 in tickets alone.
They planned to navigate L.A. traffic by using nearly every form of transit except their own cars. The most critical transition, Kvartuc said, would be getting from the Coliseum to Dodger Stadium.
They schemed to do it by Bird scooter up a protected bike lane to the Metro rail, then take a train to Union Station, then hop on the bus to Chavez Ravine. Other rides would involve Uber.
Pop star Lance Bass followed their trail. The former ‘N Sync singer tweeted about his journey to the five stadiums for “the most epic sports day in L.A.”
“We are being very ambitious today!” he said in a tweet.
What if you don’t want to drive?
“We expect to be super, super busy,” said Sara Visser, a bartender at Public House, a popular watering hole in the Los Feliz neighborhood. “So, to keep our kitchen from being completely overwhelmed, we’re streamlining our menu to push mostly burgers and chicken wings.”
The Goal Sports Cafe in the Beverly Grove neighborhood, which features more than a dozen 50-inch televisions and a projection screen, also tinkered with its menu for the big event.
“To accommodate our Dodger fans and clientele, we initially planned to stock up on hot dogs,” he said. “Then we thought, nah, they’d prefer churros instead.”
“So, our sports Sunday special will be churros — hot, aromatic, right out of the oven,” he added. “They’ll go for $10 a plate with a side of chocolate dipping sauce.”
Aren’t there other events as well?
Various other events, including Dia de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the largest Day of the Dead celebration in California, and Los Angeles Comic Con at the L.A. Convention Center, which drew 90,000 visitors last year, will add to the numbers — and possible delays — on the road.
City News Service contributed to this story.
UPDATES:
3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new information two sports fans trying to attend all of today’s events.
This article was originally posted at 2:35 p.m.
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