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Special events fill Metro lots, budget coffers
By David Pollan
dpollan@mscd.edu

Auraria Parking and Transportation Services earned $800,000 in revenue in 2005 from providing campus parking for off-campus events, an amount that was 10 percent of its total budget.

Auraria parking lots have been used to provide event parking since the campus was founded in 1977. However, the service did not reap any noticeable benefits until the arrival of the Pepsi Center, according to Mark Gallagher, division director of Auraria Parking and Transportation Services.

“The advent of the Pepsi Center really picked up the pace,” he said. “The amount of money we earned jumped with the Pepsi Center.”

Auraria opens up the Tivoli parking lot, Lot C and the Tivoli-Auraria Parking Structure during the week for events that take place at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High or any special events on campus and in the surrounding area. The Tivoli parking lot and the TAPS structure charge the public $10 to park on most occasions, and charge $5 to park in Lot C, Gallagher said. If public event parking overflows these lots, Lot D is opened to the public and, on occasion, the Parking and Transportation Center, according to Gallagher.

The event parking prices may vary for smaller events that lack big crowds.

Parking lots are often open on the weekends for event parking, especially during the professional football season. Gallagher estimated that 400 to 700 vehicles use Auraria parking lots per event and 900 to 1,200 vehicles use the lots for Denver Broncos games, putting revenues for each event at between $4,000 and $12,000. Gallagher said that about 100,000 vehicles per year use event parking provided by Auraria.

“It’s great for the students. It’s really tremendous,” he said. “Ten percent of the parking budget comes from non-students.”

Gallagher said the revenue earned from event parking goes to lowering rates throughout the whole parking system for students and was quick to point out that student needs were the parking services’ main concern.

“Students certainly are our main business and the main source of our revenue,” he said.

A student will never be charged the price of event parking, and lots are never closed and reserved solely for event parking during the week, Gallagher said. Occasionally on weekends a lot will be reserved for Broncos parking only, and students coming to campus will be directed to park in a different lot that is free of charge, such as the Tivoli lot.

“We never reserve the Tivoli lot specifically for an event,” Gallagher said.

The distinction made between students and event patrons are made at the entrance to each parking lot open for event parking, said Lisa Lanford, field manager for Auraria Parking and Transportation Services. She said a student might be asked to present a student ID, but the parking attendant will usually use his or her own judgment. If the parking attendant sees a backpack, books or a syllabus they are not likely to ask for an ID. But if the car is full of people with Avalanche jerseys claiming to be students, then the attendant would ask to see an ID. Lanford said students might see presenting an ID card as an inconvenience, but in the end it is for the good of the students.

“Students have the first priority, and we make a big effort to make sure they have a place to park,” Lanford said.

Money accumulated by Auraria Parking and Transportation Services throughout the year is used to pay general expenses, and any overflow goes into what Gallagher called a parking reserve account. This is for all revenue that exceeds parking expenses, he said. The money accrued in the reserve account will ultimately be used for campus improvements and specific parking improvements. Gallagher also noted it would be used for emergency spending.
In the past, money from the parking reserve account has been used to repair half the roof on the Auraria Event Center, because the state would only cover repairs for the other half. Gallagher referred to this as an emergency expense. According to the Auraria Parking and Transportation Services website, the service has contributed more than $25 million in campus improvement projects to date.
“ There were no campus projects we were involved in last year, and there is nothing on the docket for this year,” Gallagher said. “Right now we are just rebuilding our reserve.”