Last year, OVG360 launched its Parking & Mobility division—the first of its kind in the sports and live entertainment industry—which is wholly dedicated to parking efficiencies. The division helps venues drive revenue, improve the guest experience, maximize operational efficiency, and reduce expenses, implement the right technology, and optimize overall mobility.

A critical part of OVG360’s work with venues is evaluating new technologies and operating methodologies to determine if they can be successfully implemented at a venue. Any new technology applied to how parking is sold, traffic is moved, payment is accepted, inventory is managed, or any other component of event parking is handled, ultimately must positively impact the guest experience.

The Evolution of Event Parking

Many parking industry veterans will remember that, at one point in time, two-part tickets and an apron was the pinnacle of event parking operations. Heavily reliant on labor, slow transaction times, and requiring layered revenue controls, we all accepted that it was just how it was done at the time due to limitations on technology.

Fortunately, event parking has evolved beyond two-part tickets as new technology enables operators to make positive, productive changes at their venues. Often, these technologies are incrementally applied to what is now the default event parking model, which places attendants at the entries to validate prepaid passes and process payments. While technology has allowed the default model to incrementally improve over time, until recently it has not allowed for a significant shift in the overall operating methodologies.

That is finally changing with the introduction and expansion of “free flow” event parking.

“Free Flow” Parking Operations

The focus of event parking traffic planning typically revolves around post-event egress and how to get cars out as quickly as possible. I’d argue that event ingress should receive the same level of time, effort, and strategy. After all, as parking operators our goal should be to get guests into the venue to begin enjoying their event—and buying food, beverages and merchandise—as quickly as possible. In fact, based on a 2018 study completed by ParkWhiz, guests who prepay for parking spend 35% more in-venue than guests who do not prepay.

The free flow operating model eliminates the need for guests to queue or to stop and interact with an attendant before entering their parking location, greatly improving the speed of guest entry into the venue. And while parking industry professionals will recognize that free flow parking has been around for years in municipalities, surface lots, universities and other operations, the concept is relatively new to the event world.

Inspired by the success of the Free Flow Parking Program at loanDepot Park (a 2022 IPMI Award of Excellence Winning project), OVG360 began evaluating the model for our venues to determine the potential improvements to our operations, starting with our newest arena.

Large Venue Adoption of Free Flow

In December 2022, Oak View Group (OVG) opened the more than 11,000-seat Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, California, a premier venue poised to host the biggest artists and acts on the planet. Designed specifically for concerts, shows and hockey—as the new home for the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL Seattle Kraken—the venue provides top-tier hospitality, artist amenities, and all the benefits of a modern music and sports venue.

During our planning process, we identified a number of obstacles related to parking, many of which are common for venues everywhere. The obstacles included limited roadway infrastructure, no in-lot queuing capability, community concern for traffic impacts, and market demographics. It quickly became evident that traditional event parking with attendants at the entries validating prepaid passes and processing payments was not a viable option.

To counter these obstacles, the Parking & Mobility team opted to introduce free flow parking to the great Palm Springs area.

Partnering with Flash Parking for technology and Ace Parking for operations, Acrisure Arena’s free flow parking process was designed for easy adoption by guests. The guest experience is as follows:

• Parking is pre-sold to the guest, who then enters their license plate as their credential. To encourage pre-sales, license plate entry is not required at the time of purchase; however, the guest receives reminders immediately after the purchase, as well as 24 hours before and one hour before the parking start time.
• Guests who have not prepaid are able to pay by scanning QR-code signage posted in the lots, entering their license plate and completing payment. Guest checkout avoids forcing guests to download an app and allows them to transact quickly and be on their way.
• Ambassadors in the lots have handheld units to process payments for guests who may not have a smart phone or are otherwise unable to pay using the signage.
• During the event, vehicle-based License Plate Recognition (LPR) cameras perform compliance duties, identifying guest who have not paid and issuing a payment reminder notice to the vehicle.

Acrisure Arena’s program eliminated the need for queuing and placed a higher level of focus on getting our guests into the lot, parked, and on their way to enjoy their event.

Keys to Success

After 50 days and dozens of events, Acrisure Arena’s free flow parking has proven to be a game-changer. Guests can easily enter, park, and begin enjoying the event, which has enhanced the overall guest experience—and resulted in greater overall event profitability.

So what elements are needed to make free flow successful?

Pre-sell, pre-sell, pre-sell!

The venue marketing team must be hyper-focused on pre-selling. Joyce Szudzik, Acrisure Arena’s Marketing VP, and her team have given a masterclass in integrating parking into every potential sales channel, as well as creating engaging content for guests. The arena is currently pre-selling at a rate of 80%, an accomplishment when compared to the industry average of 40 to 45%.

In addition to improving ingress, pre-selling can benefit venues in various other ways. As mentioned earlier, a guest who pre-purchases parking spends an average of 35% more in venue than guests who don’t. Guest Net Promoter Scores (NPS) also increase by four points if a guest pre-purchases parking.

Traffic Directors

Parking attendants and guests usually see interaction as an example of a high level of customer service. In a traditional event parking model, one where an attendant greets the guest during the transaction, this might be the case. However, in a free flow model, guest interactions while the guest is still in their car has the opposite effect on the overall customer experience.

Traffic directors should be placed where they are still visible to entering traffic but far enough away that they could wave guests forward toward available parking without the guests attempting to interact with them. Once the guest is out of their vehicle, ambassadors can be there to assist with any questions.

Bottom Line Impact

There are several financial benefits of the free flow model. The most significant is labor savings due to not staffing cashiers at each entrance to validate passes or process payments. Acrisure Arena’s program allowed for a $190K reduction in payroll by not implementing a traditional event program and removing the need for cashiers.

Pricing strategies, such as pricing drive-up rates higher than pre-paid rates and adding fees to the guest portion of the transaction, can not only increase parking revenue per caps, but can also drive pre-paid adoption.

Compliance

When evaluating free flow, guest compliance rates are typically the bulk of the conversation. The best way to mitigate potential compliance issues is to focus on pre-selling. With an 80 percent pre-sell rate, you only need to ensure compliance on the 20 percent of guests who are paying on-site. Ambassadors who greet guests as they exit their vehicles, coupled with signage placed in lots with payment reminders, also improve compliance rates. While it varies by event type, the overall non-compliance rates at Acrisure Arena have been in the low single digits each event.

Sustainability

At first glance, parking and sustainability appear to be mortal enemies, destined to be at odds. However, the reality is that well-designed parking programs can have substantial positive impacts on environmental concerns. For instance, assuming the free flow model reduces the amount of time in queue/idling by 10 minutes, with 2,000 cars per event and 127 events per year, this equates to 167K lbs. of CO2 avoided annually. Parking and sustainability can be friends!

Disruption in Parking

I encourage parking and mobility experts to experiment with innovative and unexpected strategies, processes and technologies, such as free flow, with the goal of moving the industry forward. At OVG, we are exploring the free flow model with other arenas, convention centers and stadiums to provide a higher level of guest experience that improve NPS, positive net income benefits that improve the bottom line, and sustainability practices that improve the environment. While this model might not work for every venue, the potential benefits to venues and guests earn it a seat at the planning table.

OVG has purposefully assembled subject matter experts in parking, sustainability, security, private events and other disciplines. We understand what it takes to operate a venue—because OVG owns and operates venues. Whether a brand-new arena or one that has been operating for decades, it is important to be bold and daring in our approach as parking professionals because it is ultimately founded in expertise, research, and experience.◆