I Predict Super Bowl Week In The 817 Will End With A Massive Traffic Jam

I was not able to get this week's FW Weekly til the Big Thaw occurred on Saturday. I suspect that was true for a lot of FW Weekly readers.

Judging by the cover it appears this week's FW Weekly focuses on the Super Bowl. I did not get around to reading it til this morning, to find, in this case, judging by the cover is a correct judgement.

Much of what is inside the cover of FW Weekly was rendered a bit ironic due to how Super Bowl week actually played out.

Like an article titled "From Sundance to the World" with a Fort Worth Star-Telegram level of almost breathless puffery, all atwitter that the world was coming to downtown Fort Worth courtesy of ESPN, saying ESPN reaches about 100 million U.S. households with ESPN International reaching 53 million more in 59 other countries.

I think more properly stated ESPN is a channel on various cable networks, with those cable networks reaching a total of 153 million households worldwide.

FW Weekly can't really be thinking that downtown Fort Worth has been seen this week in 153 million houses worldwide. If that did happen the world was not seeing the type images that makes a Chamber of Commerce happy.

After going down to check out the Super Bowl zone again, yesterday, along with thousands of others finally able to escape the Big Freeze and its Big Snow, and thinking about what I saw, I think we may be seeing one more weather related debacle today.

Yesterday the traffic coming from the east on I-30 was jammed up trying to get off the freeway to get to the Ballpark/Stadium area. This was around 3 in the afternoon.

Traffic was backed up all around the stadium area. On the south side of the stadium I saw the longest line of taxis I've ever seen. All stuck in the traffic jam.

I read today that a lot of Pittsburgh Steeler fans fly in to the Super Bowl city any time the Steelers are in the Super Bowl. Even if they don't have a ticket. I talked to several of those yesterday. The Steeler fans were easy to spot, many with cheese on their head.

I do not believe an event has taken place in Cowboys Stadium where the ticket holders get shuffled through a long security tent to get into the stadium.

I believe this will be the largest crowd to have attended an event in the stadium.

What I think may happen today is, just like yesterday, there will be a lot of formerly snowbound locals who decide to try to check out the Super Bowl. There will be no places for them to park, unless they want to pay an exorbitant fee. You'll have all the game goers arriving, by taxi or whatever means. I assume the Arlington trolley buses will be in the mix.

What I saw yesterday was a situation where traffic was not moving well. I think it will be much worse today.

So, that is my prediction for the day. The Final Debacle of Super Bowl Week and Super Bowl XLV will be a monster traffic jam with game goers not able to get into the stadium before the game starts.

Keep in mind, if you find this prediction unsettling, I am usually wrong whenever I predict anything.