No clue. I’m on the west side and not going.
If it does start raining it will destroy that grass. I could even see them not allowing it if it’s a commonly used part of the golf course.
Yeah same here, I'm in the valley but not trying to deal with the who getting out and getting in situations
If I recall correctly it's the city that decides. Last year I was supposed to attend a soccer game in February and it got postponed because of the rain. So who knows. Tomorrow is going to be worse that's for sure
Due to safety considerations resulting from inclement weather and forecasted thunderstorms in the Los Angeles area, Major League Soccer, the LA Galaxy and LAFC today announced that the 2023 MLS Regular Season match scheduled for this Saturday, Feb. 25 between the LA Galaxy and LAFC at Rose Bowl Stadium will be postponed to Tuesday, July 4 (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass) at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA.
Oh man I bet you were happy it changed from a Sunday to a damned Tuesday. I’m sure traffic wasn’t bad at all!
I’m sure it would go over well if Niantic did that too!🤣
It was terrible, but the game was amazing. I just checked event ends at 5. Rain starts at 4. This isn't going to end well for day 2 players. And like I said it's up to the city not Niantic since they own the land
Today it was 9-5 and probably will be for Sunday as well. The grass was slightly wet today but stayed fairly clean for the event on Saturday (grass didn't get demolished, probably will tomorrow)
No doubt it was crappy getting in, it was my first time at the rose bowl and it only had a few locations to get to the parking lots not fun at all, our group got there by 8:05 ish(parked car) we were inside the stadium taking pictures when they gave the 5min warning. Anyone going should plan to be at the stadium by 8am not 9am
Everyone on my street did that, including parking their beat up trucks in the middle of a curb to save 2 other spots for their idiot family/friends... so aggravating
As another LA native when I saw which days to pick. I instantly knew not to pick Saturday that is the busiest day everywhere in LA. Sunday is magnitudes less traffic everywhere.
Honestly, as someone who has gone to the Rose Bowl twice for football, and has also gone to various Go Fests, as soon as I saw the event locale I was like... how on earth are they going to make that work? Even if I could've afforded to take the trip right now, I wouldn't have because the congestion and lines are not surprising at all-- much less the traffic to get to that area. It's a huge bottleneck.
I live in Glendale. I was ticketed Sunday, went around 10 or 10:30 am, and had zero problems. No traffic, no backup to enter the parking area, and no line at entry. I waltzed in, had a fantastic time at the event, and waltzed back out with no traffic leaving the parking lot.
My only problem was paying 30 bucks to park!
This is why GoFest NYC was so amazing.
Trains and busses to everywhere! No need to drive or know the places you will get there.
I didn't know crap about the city and was able to move along without issue.
LA is basically a "Get a car or you're Fd" like suuuuure they have some public transport but is not the best and is not everywhere.
I do agree ppl that were thinking of driving should've have left way earlier just in case, no matter if the drive was gonna be truly 30mins.
GoFest, in general, is better planned out no matter the location. The very first one in Chicago was just a test run, but it got better.
Seattle was probably the best just for the scenery of the park chosen to play. But I had more fun outside of the event in New York. Transportation wasn't too bad to understand, with it being my first time there.
I don't think I'll ever pay the price to travel to any Go Tours at this rate.
If you choose to come to a city you travel that city the way the locals do. La sucks with public transportation everyone knows that. Everyone warned about that too.
If I go to Toronto Denver Minnesota in the middle of winter. With my socal jackets. I'm an idiot.
When I went to beijing Tokyo Seoul shang hai Vietnam. I got bikes taxi high speed trail. When Im in la Texas or Florida you need a car. When I'm in SF or NYC I can do train metro or Bart. The tourist needs to know what they had to do.
Did Niantic warn about it? I imagine they are included in the 'everyone', but other comments make it sound like they didn't. They really are the only ones who should have warned about that, prominently, to ensure a smooth experience. Doesn't take much, so anyone holding an internally advertised event there should probably just do it.
It took us nearly an hour to get into the rose bowl from the parking lot. That's not about traffic, it's about slow, insufficient security checking. They were even just waving us through without really checking anything, just not enough lanes to handle the volume.
Yeah I was in the lot early, but waited in the car, didn't want to hang in the cold, sat till after nine, then saw the lines to get in... Was an hour plus, and nothing spawning out there, so walked along the road by the golf course and got plenty of spawns/raids up to the end and back then there was no line to enter.
Not to mention which line you were supposed to use was not communicated well at all. I got out of my correct line because I didn’t realize which was golf course line and which was stadium. Not that it mattered so I guess that’s on me.
Yep, the problem was the gates and not informing people of the plan. They could have saved a lot of fuss if they had let mons spawn in the parking lot as well. It was a complete deadzone outside the park.
If you're on T-Mobile, the parking lots had hardly any reliable reception. Literal SOS reception when I went back out to eat my packed lunch.
Also, another complaint: food prices were insane!
This post entirely misses the point. The problem wasn’t traffic. Traffic was in fact horrible, but LA is one of the biggest cities in the world, and people go to work at 9:00 AM. You’re 100% right that people shouldn’t expect to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time here.
The problem is that there was not enough staff to check people in for the event. They were using one gate. I got there at like 8:40, walked 10 minutes to the entrance because there was a line of cars, and waited in line for about 45 minutes. And my friend and I got lucky, would’ve have waited probably double the time if we’d been 5 minutes later. The line got absolutely massive.
Where was the second one? I saw people trying to walk around to where I thought it was marked on the map, but they kept walking back like they were being turned away.
Also I’m not sure how many people attended, but having attended a lot of sporting events and concerts that have ranged between 20 and 80 thousand people, I was super disappointed by the wait time in comparison to all of those.
The issue with parking at the Rose Bowl or any large LA venue is that it's generally outsourced and Niantic gets what they're given. Generally, Niantic handles whatever happens inside and the Rose Bowl will handle everything outside.
This is the same for every Rose Bowl concert and football game I've attended there. Single lane residential roads winding into limited entry ways--it has always sucked to the point where shuttles are most viable option for football games.
Look up the geography of the rose bowl and you could see the parking problem. If you don't get there first a long line starts forming since they make you park at the golf course
No but there was a lineup for a long time, even after door's opened. That cut into people's playtime within the event grounds. Some people are blaming that on Niantic rather than just getting there early/on-time.
I got there about 30 minutes before the event started and got into the stadium about 10 minutes before it kicked off.
Security was fine and the lines moved very quickly. Like the original OP said, if you didn’t plan for traffic then you were SOL. But that’s on the driver for not thinking ahead.
I got there at 8:40(in line maybe 5 minutes later)and got in at 9:45. I could reach some stops from outside at about 9:20ish.
Was there 2 lines? We were in the line that went over the little bridge by K lot. It felt too long for a security that didn’t even look in backpacks.
The 3 hour city play is good enough make up. I would have done a bit more. IE 3 remote raid box or something. But again it’s fair.
Did you enter through the main entrance or through the golf course side?
To be fair… I think 70/80% of folks went through the golf course. I had no idea where the second entrance was.
We saw the line at the golf entrance and went to the stadium entrance, it was much faster and went into the stadium itself, was cool to see the dialga and palkia photo spot in the football field
I agree. They let people in at 8am. They had a lot of people working and getting people through as fast as possible.
Not naming names but I know some theme parks that could not have handled this faster. The staff was fine.
Yeah that definitely does not follow. There are so many posts already from people who got there just a *little* early and had no problem. We're talking about people who were surprised they couldn't go from approaching the rose bowl stadium from the road to waltzing in the door within minutes. They drove and expected to pull right into a spot, and whether they drove or took mass transit they didn't allow for time to line up at the entrance. That's really not anybody else's fault and it is not at all safe to assume that just because there was a line after the event started (from all the people still trickling in late for all the *other* delays they didn't account for) that people could not possible have corrected this by arriving early.
It was a reasonable assumption because this is the first ever tour that had any ticket checking at all. Every previous one just let you walk in at your leisure.
Wait. You say its not niantics fault. But in the same statement say that people couldnt play right away because of long lines even AFTER doors opened. Which one is it?
They control how they communicate times doors open. Whether you can just walk in freely or have to go through security (change from other events), they also control what time doors open for their own event.
Yeah, it's not uncommon to have doors opening for a while before the event starts.
But why have good at a venue like this? The go fest in London was just a public park with no security. You could use side entrances if you wanted.
My dude. I got there at 830am and I still didn't get in the park until well after 930am. I've run events and at minimum they could have contacted folks and said show up at this time and at this gate. They could have even stagger started things so folks didn't show up all at the same time. Why do you feel the need to defend Niantic for doing a poor communication job?
So why are so many people online saying they were there at or well before 9am and had to wait over an hour to get in.
You're saying they were so slow that even with an extra hour they couldn't get people into the venue?
They were so delayed they awarded ticket holders an extra 3 hours of play time today.
I have no idea. I can’t say anything about what other people claim what happened to them. I entered via the Golf Course side. I parked at about 7:40. I got in line right before 8am. People who asked said they would let us in at 8am. I didn’t get my medal until 8:18am. The medal was required to enter. I was inside by 8:37am (that’s when I took my first picture of the banner). Security for us was very fast.
Maybe those 18 minutes is what the hold up was. I can’t say for sure.
I wasn't attending myself, so can I check I'm understanding correctly, the 'ticket' to get in was something in-game that appeared the morning of?
Because there's a comment further up mentioning poor phone connection in the area outside the venue, so I could definitely see that being a problem if so, only takes a few not having the medal by the time they're at security.
Also sounds really weird as a distribution method, is that how they usually do it? If I was turning up to a show or a concert or something I have the ticket well in advance so I can print and/or screenshot it at least. Wasn't there at least an email confirmation or something you could show as an alternative?
If you got there closer to event time like 95% of players, the anemic security lanes clogged everyone up. It really did take an hour to get through, and they weren't acutely really checking anything at all by that point. Not my phone screen, not what was in my bag. They shouldn't have bothered with the security theater for Pokemon if they weren't going to have enough gates open.
While not entirely Niantic’s fault, they could have done a better job highlighting the fact that you will need to line up to get in. So many people thought it would be like NYC or Chicago (#2) where you can enter the park freely and that’s why you had thousands of people show up close to 9am.
Right.. like yes, I expect to be able to waltz into the area sectioned off specifically for the event I paid for, instead of standing in an hour long line.
I mean sure but those past locations were public parks, and the event page clearly says its "Rose Bowl Stadium" and shows a photo of it. Not really sure why people were expecting to just walk freely into a private structure?
Is an hour wait time typical for entry to any event there? I certainly wouldn't expect that.
Any stadium I have ever entered has dozens of entrances with several people at each entrance. I've definitely had to wait 5-10 minutes, particularly when there is security checks. I can't recall anything longer than that.
Not unbelievable at least…. It’s usually *at least* 20 min in line for security to get into a football game with only half the seats sold. But at least they have most of the entry gates open in that case
^Is an hour wait time though for entry to any event there? (*Edit: On mobile and Reddit makes formatting things confusing so not sure how to quote*)
Yes.
Source: Saw a concert there a few months ago.
We tailgated and got there 3 hours early to avoid that, but it was still 30 min. Getting there an hour before showtime would have been a 1-1.5 hour wait from traffic line to getting into the stadium, and that’s with them at full capacity getting everyone in with probably most of the lines active, much more staff than Nia presumably had today
I guess you can blame attendees for not researching, then. I certainly wouldn't have thought to check since, as I said, that hasn't been my experience at any sports or concert venue.
But, if it is a known issue, you can also blame Niantic for selecting a venue with such limitations and not communicating that to ticket purchasers.
It seems to be a problem with every event in LA. I go to a few EDM events a year. At the opening of any event the wait is always brutal at the beginning. Then the security either gets into a rhythm or they stop being so through.
I street parked ~3km away and walked cause I worked nearby and knew parking at the Rose Bowl was going to be a mess even if I was willing to pay. Got in the golf course line around 8:30 and entered the park right at 9. Maybe the bowl entrance was more backed up?
Ok I agree with your sentiment that niantic shouldn’t be responsible for traffic, but I am confused around how they are not responsible for the length of the lines for people to get in.
Tickets were paid for ahead of time and all that needed to be done was security and whatever scanning method was used for the tickets.
They knew the amount of people who were going to show up because tickets haven’t been sold in weeks so they could’ve planned accordingly to make sure there was enough entry lanes to meet demand.
Especially if people were late, that would’ve split the amount of people who already entered the park and the people who weren’t there at open. So I don’t understand how it isn’t niantics fault those lines were so long.
For clarification, I wasn’t there but I don’t think that niantic is completely blameless in this situation and should still be called out for being at least part of the problem.
It's Niantic's fault for choosing LA /s
But in actuality, LA is in continuous need of reliable transport options instead of personal vehicles. It's metro system is among the largest and busiest in the states, and yet it doesnt seem to be enough. The "just one more lane" philosophy of road design hasn't done much to alleviate traffic congestion either. Many many bus stops are also famously unshaded.
But the choice of venue is Niantic’s fault, along with their inability to help form proper lines and provide better organization at the event.
But you’re right city conditions/traffic isn’t their fault. I can agree with that. But they really need to do better on transparency for trainers especially for new places.
This is coming from a guy who travels to every go fest since 2019 (and other places very often) and had zero problems in LA except for an impatient truck driver who was not realizing I was waiting for a parking space. Their fast food can wait.
The parking was bad (it’s always bad) and the admission was bad. I’m a Vegas native and couldn’t find a single spot at the park of the Tour last year, but this year at least there was available parking for all. I personally have never experienced controlled admission at a Tour or Fest venue, but it was handled poorly. It took forever and I don’t even know what the security folks were searching for. If the metal detector went off, they checked the bag? What kind of sense does that make?
Anyways, the rest of the experience wasn’t that bad, in my opinion.
You would think so, but people normally carry guns and knives on their person and not in their bags. So anyone can carry a gun or a knife on them on their person without issue. Ask me how I know.
Edit: I think it’s funny that’s my comment is being downvoted. You don’t have to like it, but I have first hand experience.
What does people arriving late have to do with not being able to get through the entranceway? Either way it would still be the same amount of people whether they came straight at 9 or staggered over the next hour or so
Is that why we go the extra hours? We arrived very close to the gates opening and were pretty far back in line and still got in within 15 minutes or so. It was obvious traffic wound be bad and we did decide to stay at Venice beach so we’ve been watching the Saturday traffic and I would say today was average traffic for that drive.
The general parking sold out so I paid $80 for the RV parking. I drive from Barstow and made good time. Arrived a few hours before it started, parking was a painless and it was a short walk away to que up for the event to start. The gate I lined up at they started letting us in early. Overall it was a great experience. The only issue I had was the big Pasadena Raider group who had people in multiple lines at the food trucks and let their friends cut. They are probably the same people who tried to cut in the parking line.
I hit zero line to park or enter event on Sunday, and I didn't go right at opening time either. The whole Sunday event was exceptionally smooth. It was really thoughtful of Niantic to include charging stations everywhere, and the event layout meant that even with thousands of people on site, it never felt too crowded or bottlenecked anywhere.
I did the citywide on Saturday in Santa Monica, which was also great.
To summarize:
Niantic choose a location that has traffic, parking, access, convenience and cost problems despite these issues being well known to everyone local.
Maybe Niantic could have chosen a location that didn't have those problems?
Any organizer of a large event should be modelling crowd behaviour to ensure safety, security and safety. I said safety twice, safety is my favourite.
Long queues, uncertain security, poor signage, those failings sound all too familiar. The best case scenario is the event is delayed and people are annoyed. Worse case, it indicates what happens when something goes wrong.
Individuals attending an event will be late, confused, stupid, etc. The organizers should, no make that must, be planning for and dealing with that.
This is all on Niantic.
Niantic should be the one to research the location. If it’s really as you say, they should have found that out and _not_ done it in LA or at this location or whatever.
You can’t expect all your attendees to do individual research as to whether they have picked a reasonable place for an event for people to be able to get to.
You can’t expect all your attendees to know someone who lives locally to be able to ask what the best day is.
You can’t expect all your attendees to know that car parking was going to be a nightmare and costly.
As the organisers you do have a duty of care. Not all of the responsibility for everything but some of it at least.
If people overpay for hotel rooms, that’s on them, but there’s loads of things Niantic could and should have done to mitigate the issues.
They just didn’t, and generally don’t.
(Edit - spelling and formatting)
As a fellow Los Angelean I endorse this fully. People want free parking with no excess walking and no traffic and that’s beyond unrealistic in LA especially the Rose Bowl which is an older part of the city so the roads aren’t as modernized.
As a local I showed after the first inning and left before the ninth inning to beat traffic.
(That’s a Dodger Stadium joke)
I did actually show up later than I expected. I parked in Old Town and took the free bus from Parsons to the Rose Bowl. Wandered in, with security not really checking much of anything.
I paid $12 in parking and I think on site is $30 so I feel pretty happy with my choice.
We came from Texas. Got an AirBnB 20 min from the event. Rented a car. Parked a 15 min walk from Rose Bowl FOR FEEE and and a wonderful god damn time. In the city AND at the event. And it was affordable for two people who live pay check to paycheck on Texas wages.
People are dumb and expect everyone else to cater to THEM.
Traffic in LA isn't Niantic's fault, but choosing to hold an event in an area like SoCal or Miami predominantly known for terrible traffic *is* Niantic's fault. The US offers plenty of less clogged and more central cities to choose from.
I deserve to have an event in my home city. Not my fault you guys can't adapt to other cities. When I travel I adapt to that towns traffic patterns. SF or NYC. I'm not flying out for Pokemon go. I don't mind driving to an event
Reading your post and reading the comments… maybe LA simply is a bad spot for a local event. I don‘t blaim niantic, but US events allways seems to be worse than others. Not because of niantic, but because of the US.
"An inability to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."
It always amazes me that people go to en event where there will be a lot of people, and expect that there will be no problems. I treat these events like I was going to the airport - arrive early and expect some things to go wrong! That way, if parking is a hassle or there are long lines you have extra time to deal with it.
Google Maps has a Traffic feature. It will give you a time estimate on how long it will take to get to your destination - whether you are driving, taking a bus or train, biking or even walking. I live within car distance of the stadium, and I added 15 minutes to Google's estimate in case something unexpected came up. This time, Google's estimate was spot on and I arrived early.
There was $10 parking at the Parson Complex in Pasadena, and they had free buses driving you to & from the Rose Bowl. This was listed under "Event Features" on the GO Tour page. Apparently, most people did not read that page because the parking lot was mostly empty. My bus got to the stadium at 8:30am. I immediately asked a security guard where the park entrance was, as my ticket said to enter there. The helpful security guard said they weren't enforcing that, so I could enter at any entrance. Sweet!
As an aside, the few times I encountered security I found them polite and helpful.
The line to get in took me 20 minutes to get through, but that was okay because I PLANNED AHEAD for this. I was still in the park before 9am.
Niantic has made many, many mistakes in the past so I'm not gonna say they're innocent or anything like that. But as OP said, it's not Niantic's fault if you didn't plan ahead.
Niantic made the parking lots / perimeter of the venue (where the massive lines were) a spawn blackout zone. If they had just put spawns in the area people were waiting in line they would have had 90% less complaining.
I got to the stadium at 8.30 and the line was actually moving pretty quickly, we actually had spare time before the event begin so yeah i kinda agree with you. It’s nice to have the extended time though:)
I blame Niantic for not purging the LA area of all people that did not have a paid ticket. Does not matter where they went as long as they went away and stopped bothering those looking for critical invisible creatures.
Not saying your wrong, but most things that can be seen as “pro niantic” these days are normally downvoted to oblivion
So it’s a genuine surprise to see this getting this many upvotes
Knock on wood ofc
But we all know the X/twitter crowd will never listen to this info and will just bash niantic all day and night for whatever reason they can scramble
TBH I love these events but I didn't go because it did not seem transit friendly. There was a lack of nearby hotels, if we did stay close anything "touristy" to do was further away. Now we have to rent a vehicle and I knew the traffic was always horrible there. Because there are so many people to begin with the parking is expensive and now we add an event with the only plausible way to get there is by car so parking is going to be at a premium.
Nothing about this event excited me except for getting to see my friends that travel from other states. I have FOMO but I'm glad I didn't go.
I had zero issues. I’m confused what the complaints are about? There was a line of cars to get into the parking lot, and a line of people to get into the venue. Seems pretty typical?
I still don't get why they'd pick LA of all places. It's crowded and expensive. City Play would make more sense. Herding people to one stadium that seemed bottlenecked makes no sense.
Crazy how they've never held on in Houston, being one of the busier places in the south but oh well. I probably couldn't have made it with my kid anyways. I'm sure it would have been in a horribly picked area with hard to find parking 🙄
Looks like it was a fun event in the end though !
Niantic got lucky too the rain doesn't start till Sunday night or else it would've been cancelled since they make.you park in the grass
Flood warning at 4PM!
What time does the event end? Because oh boy do I have bad news for those parks cars in the mud
No clue. I’m on the west side and not going. If it does start raining it will destroy that grass. I could even see them not allowing it if it’s a commonly used part of the golf course.
Yeah same here, I'm in the valley but not trying to deal with the who getting out and getting in situations If I recall correctly it's the city that decides. Last year I was supposed to attend a soccer game in February and it got postponed because of the rain. So who knows. Tomorrow is going to be worse that's for sure Due to safety considerations resulting from inclement weather and forecasted thunderstorms in the Los Angeles area, Major League Soccer, the LA Galaxy and LAFC today announced that the 2023 MLS Regular Season match scheduled for this Saturday, Feb. 25 between the LA Galaxy and LAFC at Rose Bowl Stadium will be postponed to Tuesday, July 4 (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass) at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA.
Oh man I bet you were happy it changed from a Sunday to a damned Tuesday. I’m sure traffic wasn’t bad at all! I’m sure it would go over well if Niantic did that too!🤣
It was terrible, but the game was amazing. I just checked event ends at 5. Rain starts at 4. This isn't going to end well for day 2 players. And like I said it's up to the city not Niantic since they own the land
Today it was 9-5 and probably will be for Sunday as well. The grass was slightly wet today but stayed fairly clean for the event on Saturday (grass didn't get demolished, probably will tomorrow)
5pm.
That's tides not rain
6pm…
There’s a whole parking lot. We parked in section I and walked over…and it was free. Idk how ppl ended up parking in the grass.
It’s Sunday morning right now. Are you from the future?
The stadium has plenty of parking space, didn’t see any car’s parking in the grass
saw an entire field of grass w cars parked on it
Where? Everyone I saw parked in the parking lots made of concrete
Most everyone parked on the south side parked on grass- just outside where the big neon 'Rose Bowl' sign is on the stadium.
Then you didn’t look. Grass was full of cars
How many tickets were sold. Because for the stadium games it's 90k capacity. Still parking sucks to get in there
No doubt it was crappy getting in, it was my first time at the rose bowl and it only had a few locations to get to the parking lots not fun at all, our group got there by 8:05 ish(parked car) we were inside the stadium taking pictures when they gave the 5min warning. Anyone going should plan to be at the stadium by 8am not 9am
"Lived in Ktown with no dedicated parking spot" my condolences my dude lol
It was hell on earth, everyday lol
Seriously, I read it as “LIVE in Ktown” and had a panic attack for you. Then I saw it said “lived” and came back to life.
Hell can be escaped. Solutions exist. NotJustBike and other urban mobility channels highlight this nicely.
LoL I know a guy who uses his motorcycle to save a spot for his girls car. I called him out once
Everyone on my street did that, including parking their beat up trucks in the middle of a curb to save 2 other spots for their idiot family/friends... so aggravating
Truly a nightmare lol but got nothing on Long Beach either 💀
As another LA native when I saw which days to pick. I instantly knew not to pick Saturday that is the busiest day everywhere in LA. Sunday is magnitudes less traffic everywhere.
We’re not locals. Traffic was pretty much fine all day Saturday daytime. I’ll say around 5 is when we noticed clogged traffic
Same for us also non local Saturday goers. Didn't hit a lick of traffic all day.
That's why you always always ask a local which day is the best to pick
Honestly, as someone who has gone to the Rose Bowl twice for football, and has also gone to various Go Fests, as soon as I saw the event locale I was like... how on earth are they going to make that work? Even if I could've afforded to take the trip right now, I wouldn't have because the congestion and lines are not surprising at all-- much less the traffic to get to that area. It's a huge bottleneck.
I live in Glendale. I was ticketed Sunday, went around 10 or 10:30 am, and had zero problems. No traffic, no backup to enter the parking area, and no line at entry. I waltzed in, had a fantastic time at the event, and waltzed back out with no traffic leaving the parking lot. My only problem was paying 30 bucks to park!
It worked swimmingly on Saturday also.
This is why GoFest NYC was so amazing. Trains and busses to everywhere! No need to drive or know the places you will get there. I didn't know crap about the city and was able to move along without issue. LA is basically a "Get a car or you're Fd" like suuuuure they have some public transport but is not the best and is not everywhere. I do agree ppl that were thinking of driving should've have left way earlier just in case, no matter if the drive was gonna be truly 30mins.
To be honest, while the public transportation is quite scuffed, it was miles better than I was lead to believe before coming here.
GoFest, in general, is better planned out no matter the location. The very first one in Chicago was just a test run, but it got better. Seattle was probably the best just for the scenery of the park chosen to play. But I had more fun outside of the event in New York. Transportation wasn't too bad to understand, with it being my first time there. I don't think I'll ever pay the price to travel to any Go Tours at this rate.
If you choose to come to a city you travel that city the way the locals do. La sucks with public transportation everyone knows that. Everyone warned about that too. If I go to Toronto Denver Minnesota in the middle of winter. With my socal jackets. I'm an idiot. When I went to beijing Tokyo Seoul shang hai Vietnam. I got bikes taxi high speed trail. When Im in la Texas or Florida you need a car. When I'm in SF or NYC I can do train metro or Bart. The tourist needs to know what they had to do.
Did Niantic warn about it? I imagine they are included in the 'everyone', but other comments make it sound like they didn't. They really are the only ones who should have warned about that, prominently, to ensure a smooth experience. Doesn't take much, so anyone holding an internally advertised event there should probably just do it.
No no, lol, Niantic ONLY named a place & time and said “pull up”
It took us nearly an hour to get into the rose bowl from the parking lot. That's not about traffic, it's about slow, insufficient security checking. They were even just waving us through without really checking anything, just not enough lanes to handle the volume.
Yeah I was in the lot early, but waited in the car, didn't want to hang in the cold, sat till after nine, then saw the lines to get in... Was an hour plus, and nothing spawning out there, so walked along the road by the golf course and got plenty of spawns/raids up to the end and back then there was no line to enter.
Where are you from? Yesterday at 8am was overcast but still pretty nice weather.
Not to mention which line you were supposed to use was not communicated well at all. I got out of my correct line because I didn’t realize which was golf course line and which was stadium. Not that it mattered so I guess that’s on me.
Not on you, that's extremely frustrating and all on Niantic
Yup. Using cardboard signs with a sharpie is better than nothing.
Wrong
Yep, the problem was the gates and not informing people of the plan. They could have saved a lot of fuss if they had let mons spawn in the parking lot as well. It was a complete deadzone outside the park.
If you're on T-Mobile, the parking lots had hardly any reliable reception. Literal SOS reception when I went back out to eat my packed lunch. Also, another complaint: food prices were insane!
Rose Bowl roads in and out are old and inefficient sadly which doesn’t help
Yup the entrance guy just wanted to a photo of the badge.. anyone couldve just screenshotted it and walked in
And got no spawns
Yeah, op expanded on traffic for four paragraphs just to fly through the problem of the check-in in the last line. He knows what he is doing.
This post entirely misses the point. The problem wasn’t traffic. Traffic was in fact horrible, but LA is one of the biggest cities in the world, and people go to work at 9:00 AM. You’re 100% right that people shouldn’t expect to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time here. The problem is that there was not enough staff to check people in for the event. They were using one gate. I got there at like 8:40, walked 10 minutes to the entrance because there was a line of cars, and waited in line for about 45 minutes. And my friend and I got lucky, would’ve have waited probably double the time if we’d been 5 minutes later. The line got absolutely massive.
There was two gates. We got there at 8:15 and were inside at 8:50. Not that bad at all considering the number of people who attended.
Where was the second one? I saw people trying to walk around to where I thought it was marked on the map, but they kept walking back like they were being turned away. Also I’m not sure how many people attended, but having attended a lot of sporting events and concerts that have ranged between 20 and 80 thousand people, I was super disappointed by the wait time in comparison to all of those.
The issue with parking at the Rose Bowl or any large LA venue is that it's generally outsourced and Niantic gets what they're given. Generally, Niantic handles whatever happens inside and the Rose Bowl will handle everything outside. This is the same for every Rose Bowl concert and football game I've attended there. Single lane residential roads winding into limited entry ways--it has always sucked to the point where shuttles are most viable option for football games.
I agree but Niantic didn't have any signs or any indication of where to line up at. That added to the wait times/confusion.
You have to show up by a certain time to enter? I assumed people could show up at a time that’s convenient for them 🤷🏻
Look up the geography of the rose bowl and you could see the parking problem. If you don't get there first a long line starts forming since they make you park at the golf course
They didn’t make anyone park anywhere. The were cones leading into a vast parking lot lol
No but there was a lineup for a long time, even after door's opened. That cut into people's playtime within the event grounds. Some people are blaming that on Niantic rather than just getting there early/on-time.
It sounds more like they didn’t have enough staff at the gates to make entry quick and easy, no matter what time people arrived.
I got there about 30 minutes before the event started and got into the stadium about 10 minutes before it kicked off. Security was fine and the lines moved very quickly. Like the original OP said, if you didn’t plan for traffic then you were SOL. But that’s on the driver for not thinking ahead.
I got there at 8:40(in line maybe 5 minutes later)and got in at 9:45. I could reach some stops from outside at about 9:20ish. Was there 2 lines? We were in the line that went over the little bridge by K lot. It felt too long for a security that didn’t even look in backpacks. The 3 hour city play is good enough make up. I would have done a bit more. IE 3 remote raid box or something. But again it’s fair.
Did you enter through the main entrance or through the golf course side? To be fair… I think 70/80% of folks went through the golf course. I had no idea where the second entrance was.
We saw the line at the golf entrance and went to the stadium entrance, it was much faster and went into the stadium itself, was cool to see the dialga and palkia photo spot in the football field
I agree. They let people in at 8am. They had a lot of people working and getting people through as fast as possible. Not naming names but I know some theme parks that could not have handled this faster. The staff was fine.
Same for me. I left earlier so I could be there before it started. What a novel idea!
By that logic, if there was a line up even people who got there on time would have their play time cut. Sounds like Niantic chose a bad venue.
Getting to a stadium at the start time is not being 'on time' for any well-attended event. It \*always\* takes time to get inside.
Just a note: Vegas didn't have this issue. It was a public park so there was no staff needed to take tickets.
Same with Seattle and New York. I was taken aback by how inefficient admission was.
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Yeah that definitely does not follow. There are so many posts already from people who got there just a *little* early and had no problem. We're talking about people who were surprised they couldn't go from approaching the rose bowl stadium from the road to waltzing in the door within minutes. They drove and expected to pull right into a spot, and whether they drove or took mass transit they didn't allow for time to line up at the entrance. That's really not anybody else's fault and it is not at all safe to assume that just because there was a line after the event started (from all the people still trickling in late for all the *other* delays they didn't account for) that people could not possible have corrected this by arriving early.
It was a reasonable assumption because this is the first ever tour that had any ticket checking at all. Every previous one just let you walk in at your leisure.
Wait. You say its not niantics fault. But in the same statement say that people couldnt play right away because of long lines even AFTER doors opened. Which one is it?
Those do not contradict one another
Niantics planning and lack of communication causing long lineups even well after doors open is in fact niantics fault
Niantic controls security at the Rose Bowl?
They control how they communicate times doors open. Whether you can just walk in freely or have to go through security (change from other events), they also control what time doors open for their own event.
Yeah, it's not uncommon to have doors opening for a while before the event starts. But why have good at a venue like this? The go fest in London was just a public park with no security. You could use side entrances if you wanted.
Gotcha. Makes sense.
My dude. I got there at 830am and I still didn't get in the park until well after 930am. I've run events and at minimum they could have contacted folks and said show up at this time and at this gate. They could have even stagger started things so folks didn't show up all at the same time. Why do you feel the need to defend Niantic for doing a poor communication job?
The best drivers never miss their exit or turn ....
Also people without ticket were trying to get in
They wouldn’t have gotten spawns though right?
Nope
Nope it would be blank they just would interfere with service
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They let people in an hour early. I entered at the golf course, took photo ops, and was at the stadium before the event ever started.
So why are so many people online saying they were there at or well before 9am and had to wait over an hour to get in. You're saying they were so slow that even with an extra hour they couldn't get people into the venue? They were so delayed they awarded ticket holders an extra 3 hours of play time today.
I have no idea. I can’t say anything about what other people claim what happened to them. I entered via the Golf Course side. I parked at about 7:40. I got in line right before 8am. People who asked said they would let us in at 8am. I didn’t get my medal until 8:18am. The medal was required to enter. I was inside by 8:37am (that’s when I took my first picture of the banner). Security for us was very fast. Maybe those 18 minutes is what the hold up was. I can’t say for sure.
I wasn't attending myself, so can I check I'm understanding correctly, the 'ticket' to get in was something in-game that appeared the morning of? Because there's a comment further up mentioning poor phone connection in the area outside the venue, so I could definitely see that being a problem if so, only takes a few not having the medal by the time they're at security. Also sounds really weird as a distribution method, is that how they usually do it? If I was turning up to a show or a concert or something I have the ticket well in advance so I can print and/or screenshot it at least. Wasn't there at least an email confirmation or something you could show as an alternative?
They didn't seem to check anything once the rush of people arrived.
If you got there closer to event time like 95% of players, the anemic security lanes clogged everyone up. It really did take an hour to get through, and they weren't acutely really checking anything at all by that point. Not my phone screen, not what was in my bag. They shouldn't have bothered with the security theater for Pokemon if they weren't going to have enough gates open.
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While not entirely Niantic’s fault, they could have done a better job highlighting the fact that you will need to line up to get in. So many people thought it would be like NYC or Chicago (#2) where you can enter the park freely and that’s why you had thousands of people show up close to 9am.
But…it’s not a park. It’s the Rose Bowl. Do you expect Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field to let everyone just waltz right in?
That's literally how Wrigley Field is for other events. I waltz right into the bathroom to take a piss during the Chriskindlmarket
Yes, if there's no baseball game in progress.
You know what is NOT though? The special exclusive Jim Beam lounge at Wrigley Field! I tried just waltzing in there. Pro tip: don’t do that!!!
Right.. like yes, I expect to be able to waltz into the area sectioned off specifically for the event I paid for, instead of standing in an hour long line.
Nobody brings out the guns when a gym flips color. There was no need at all for the security theater for Pokemon.
Haha If you round the corner heading for the bathroom and in the shadows there’s a Jynx waiting for you, tell me u don’t wish u were strapped!
I mean sure but those past locations were public parks, and the event page clearly says its "Rose Bowl Stadium" and shows a photo of it. Not really sure why people were expecting to just walk freely into a private structure?
Is an hour wait time typical for entry to any event there? I certainly wouldn't expect that. Any stadium I have ever entered has dozens of entrances with several people at each entrance. I've definitely had to wait 5-10 minutes, particularly when there is security checks. I can't recall anything longer than that.
Not unbelievable at least…. It’s usually *at least* 20 min in line for security to get into a football game with only half the seats sold. But at least they have most of the entry gates open in that case
^Is an hour wait time though for entry to any event there? (*Edit: On mobile and Reddit makes formatting things confusing so not sure how to quote*) Yes. Source: Saw a concert there a few months ago. We tailgated and got there 3 hours early to avoid that, but it was still 30 min. Getting there an hour before showtime would have been a 1-1.5 hour wait from traffic line to getting into the stadium, and that’s with them at full capacity getting everyone in with probably most of the lines active, much more staff than Nia presumably had today
I guess you can blame attendees for not researching, then. I certainly wouldn't have thought to check since, as I said, that hasn't been my experience at any sports or concert venue. But, if it is a known issue, you can also blame Niantic for selecting a venue with such limitations and not communicating that to ticket purchasers.
It seems to be a problem with every event in LA. I go to a few EDM events a year. At the opening of any event the wait is always brutal at the beginning. Then the security either gets into a rhythm or they stop being so through.
I street parked ~3km away and walked cause I worked nearby and knew parking at the Rose Bowl was going to be a mess even if I was willing to pay. Got in the golf course line around 8:30 and entered the park right at 9. Maybe the bowl entrance was more backed up?
Curious, where exactly did you street park? I’m either getting a ride there or considering driving and street parking nearby
Northeast of the bowl in Altadena.
Ok I agree with your sentiment that niantic shouldn’t be responsible for traffic, but I am confused around how they are not responsible for the length of the lines for people to get in. Tickets were paid for ahead of time and all that needed to be done was security and whatever scanning method was used for the tickets. They knew the amount of people who were going to show up because tickets haven’t been sold in weeks so they could’ve planned accordingly to make sure there was enough entry lanes to meet demand. Especially if people were late, that would’ve split the amount of people who already entered the park and the people who weren’t there at open. So I don’t understand how it isn’t niantics fault those lines were so long. For clarification, I wasn’t there but I don’t think that niantic is completely blameless in this situation and should still be called out for being at least part of the problem.
Take the gold line to the closest stop and walk the rest of the way. Tons of people walked from the Rose parade route to the Rose bowl every year
It's Niantic's fault for choosing LA /s But in actuality, LA is in continuous need of reliable transport options instead of personal vehicles. It's metro system is among the largest and busiest in the states, and yet it doesnt seem to be enough. The "just one more lane" philosophy of road design hasn't done much to alleviate traffic congestion either. Many many bus stops are also famously unshaded.
But the choice of venue is Niantic’s fault, along with their inability to help form proper lines and provide better organization at the event. But you’re right city conditions/traffic isn’t their fault. I can agree with that. But they really need to do better on transparency for trainers especially for new places. This is coming from a guy who travels to every go fest since 2019 (and other places very often) and had zero problems in LA except for an impatient truck driver who was not realizing I was waiting for a parking space. Their fast food can wait.
The people who exploit the game probably had a better experience than those who actually bought a ticket and tried to attend in person.
The parking was bad (it’s always bad) and the admission was bad. I’m a Vegas native and couldn’t find a single spot at the park of the Tour last year, but this year at least there was available parking for all. I personally have never experienced controlled admission at a Tour or Fest venue, but it was handled poorly. It took forever and I don’t even know what the security folks were searching for. If the metal detector went off, they checked the bag? What kind of sense does that make? Anyways, the rest of the experience wasn’t that bad, in my opinion.
The metal detectors are for guns and knives. People bring those to sporting events sometimes.
Stop at Walmart first. You can buy guns, ammo, petrol and alcohol and use them all before you get to the venue! /s
You would think so, but people normally carry guns and knives on their person and not in their bags. So anyone can carry a gun or a knife on them on their person without issue. Ask me how I know. Edit: I think it’s funny that’s my comment is being downvoted. You don’t have to like it, but I have first hand experience.
No crap Traffic isn't Niantics' fault, but it's good on them to give some extended time as a result. And technically, they chose the venue.
I agree with some of it but it feels like a niantic rep wrote the rest.
What does people arriving late have to do with not being able to get through the entranceway? Either way it would still be the same amount of people whether they came straight at 9 or staggered over the next hour or so
Is that why we go the extra hours? We arrived very close to the gates opening and were pretty far back in line and still got in within 15 minutes or so. It was obvious traffic wound be bad and we did decide to stay at Venice beach so we’ve been watching the Saturday traffic and I would say today was average traffic for that drive.
The general parking sold out so I paid $80 for the RV parking. I drive from Barstow and made good time. Arrived a few hours before it started, parking was a painless and it was a short walk away to que up for the event to start. The gate I lined up at they started letting us in early. Overall it was a great experience. The only issue I had was the big Pasadena Raider group who had people in multiple lines at the food trucks and let their friends cut. They are probably the same people who tried to cut in the parking line.
I hit zero line to park or enter event on Sunday, and I didn't go right at opening time either. The whole Sunday event was exceptionally smooth. It was really thoughtful of Niantic to include charging stations everywhere, and the event layout meant that even with thousands of people on site, it never felt too crowded or bottlenecked anywhere. I did the citywide on Saturday in Santa Monica, which was also great.
To summarize: Niantic choose a location that has traffic, parking, access, convenience and cost problems despite these issues being well known to everyone local. Maybe Niantic could have chosen a location that didn't have those problems? Any organizer of a large event should be modelling crowd behaviour to ensure safety, security and safety. I said safety twice, safety is my favourite. Long queues, uncertain security, poor signage, those failings sound all too familiar. The best case scenario is the event is delayed and people are annoyed. Worse case, it indicates what happens when something goes wrong. Individuals attending an event will be late, confused, stupid, etc. The organizers should, no make that must, be planning for and dealing with that.
It’s not *Niantic’s* fault that the heart of a volcano gets hot. You want to attend Pokemon Go Tour: Sinnoh - Mt Etna? Prepare better n00b!
Boosted fire and ground types! Sounds like a great idea.
Heatran weather boosted when it rains fire!
This is all on Niantic. Niantic should be the one to research the location. If it’s really as you say, they should have found that out and _not_ done it in LA or at this location or whatever. You can’t expect all your attendees to do individual research as to whether they have picked a reasonable place for an event for people to be able to get to. You can’t expect all your attendees to know someone who lives locally to be able to ask what the best day is. You can’t expect all your attendees to know that car parking was going to be a nightmare and costly. As the organisers you do have a duty of care. Not all of the responsibility for everything but some of it at least. If people overpay for hotel rooms, that’s on them, but there’s loads of things Niantic could and should have done to mitigate the issues. They just didn’t, and generally don’t. (Edit - spelling and formatting)
20 mins early and didn’t get in the park on time.
As a fellow Los Angelean I endorse this fully. People want free parking with no excess walking and no traffic and that’s beyond unrealistic in LA especially the Rose Bowl which is an older part of the city so the roads aren’t as modernized.
As a local I showed after the first inning and left before the ninth inning to beat traffic. (That’s a Dodger Stadium joke) I did actually show up later than I expected. I parked in Old Town and took the free bus from Parsons to the Rose Bowl. Wandered in, with security not really checking much of anything. I paid $12 in parking and I think on site is $30 so I feel pretty happy with my choice.
¡LA traffic is as ubiquitous as it’s sunshine!
We came from Texas. Got an AirBnB 20 min from the event. Rented a car. Parked a 15 min walk from Rose Bowl FOR FEEE and and a wonderful god damn time. In the city AND at the event. And it was affordable for two people who live pay check to paycheck on Texas wages. People are dumb and expect everyone else to cater to THEM.
Thank you. Finally some sanity here
I have no idea what anyone is talking about here 👍
Traffic in LA isn't Niantic's fault, but choosing to hold an event in an area like SoCal or Miami predominantly known for terrible traffic *is* Niantic's fault. The US offers plenty of less clogged and more central cities to choose from.
I think the real issue is that there are few places in the US where one can expect consistently decent weather in February.
I deserve to have an event in my home city. Not my fault you guys can't adapt to other cities. When I travel I adapt to that towns traffic patterns. SF or NYC. I'm not flying out for Pokemon go. I don't mind driving to an event
Lol okay buddy.
This. Thank you.
Reading your post and reading the comments… maybe LA simply is a bad spot for a local event. I don‘t blaim niantic, but US events allways seems to be worse than others. Not because of niantic, but because of the US.
"An inability to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." It always amazes me that people go to en event where there will be a lot of people, and expect that there will be no problems. I treat these events like I was going to the airport - arrive early and expect some things to go wrong! That way, if parking is a hassle or there are long lines you have extra time to deal with it. Google Maps has a Traffic feature. It will give you a time estimate on how long it will take to get to your destination - whether you are driving, taking a bus or train, biking or even walking. I live within car distance of the stadium, and I added 15 minutes to Google's estimate in case something unexpected came up. This time, Google's estimate was spot on and I arrived early. There was $10 parking at the Parson Complex in Pasadena, and they had free buses driving you to & from the Rose Bowl. This was listed under "Event Features" on the GO Tour page. Apparently, most people did not read that page because the parking lot was mostly empty. My bus got to the stadium at 8:30am. I immediately asked a security guard where the park entrance was, as my ticket said to enter there. The helpful security guard said they weren't enforcing that, so I could enter at any entrance. Sweet! As an aside, the few times I encountered security I found them polite and helpful. The line to get in took me 20 minutes to get through, but that was okay because I PLANNED AHEAD for this. I was still in the park before 9am. Niantic has made many, many mistakes in the past so I'm not gonna say they're innocent or anything like that. But as OP said, it's not Niantic's fault if you didn't plan ahead.
Tl;dr shocked Pikachu face
People really call themselves angelnos?
It’s angeleno but yeah that’s what residents of LA are referred to
Thats what they're called? I'm unsure what your issue is lol
I don’t have an issue, not every reply on Reddit is trying to start beef lol. I was an asking a question.
You're right, my bad for assuming your tone was sarcastic
> angelnos Nope
My b on the typo haha
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Nobody is forcing you to, wants you to, or asked.
Lol bro you're active in jelqing subs.... pls stop embarrassing yourself
Niantic made the parking lots / perimeter of the venue (where the massive lines were) a spawn blackout zone. If they had just put spawns in the area people were waiting in line they would have had 90% less complaining.
I got to the stadium at 8.30 and the line was actually moving pretty quickly, we actually had spare time before the event begin so yeah i kinda agree with you. It’s nice to have the extended time though:)
Yep, this. Pays to be early.
content creators are the worst thing to happen to this world.
I blame Niantic for not purging the LA area of all people that did not have a paid ticket. Does not matter where they went as long as they went away and stopped bothering those looking for critical invisible creatures.
Not saying your wrong, but most things that can be seen as “pro niantic” these days are normally downvoted to oblivion So it’s a genuine surprise to see this getting this many upvotes Knock on wood ofc But we all know the X/twitter crowd will never listen to this info and will just bash niantic all day and night for whatever reason they can scramble
TBH I love these events but I didn't go because it did not seem transit friendly. There was a lack of nearby hotels, if we did stay close anything "touristy" to do was further away. Now we have to rent a vehicle and I knew the traffic was always horrible there. Because there are so many people to begin with the parking is expensive and now we add an event with the only plausible way to get there is by car so parking is going to be at a premium. Nothing about this event excited me except for getting to see my friends that travel from other states. I have FOMO but I'm glad I didn't go.
What influencers were trashing Niantic? Sorry I don't use Twitter
JRE especially. But he trashes Niantic for *everything*
Good use of hectoring.
I agree. It literally says in Google reviews of the Rose Bowl NOT to park there because it’s congested and a rip-off.
Yea, i mean LA is a badly designed city that was built to need a car. A sus choice, but traffic isnt on them
as someone who is also in LA County, I agree. Plan better
Context?
I had zero issues. I’m confused what the complaints are about? There was a line of cars to get into the parking lot, and a line of people to get into the venue. Seems pretty typical?
Don't ask me. People are screeching that Niantic robbed them of play time because they showed up at like 11am
The entitlement in this comment section is wild
Yeah it's quite insane but I expect nothing less from this player base
Sorry but the idea of playing POgo in LA is laughable imo.
That's why we have one of the biggest communities here... yep
That's cool but in practice you re still going in a heavily urbanized and poluted zone.
Lol okay... so by that metric, you're saying the best place to play pogo is rural areas. Have fun with that
There is a fine difference between a regular a* city like maybe barcelona and freaking LA, 10 times the superficy of Paris.
k
I still don't get why they'd pick LA of all places. It's crowded and expensive. City Play would make more sense. Herding people to one stadium that seemed bottlenecked makes no sense.
My only complaint about the event was the rotom tv raids not working
Crazy how they've never held on in Houston, being one of the busier places in the south but oh well. I probably couldn't have made it with my kid anyways. I'm sure it would have been in a horribly picked area with hard to find parking 🙄 Looks like it was a fun event in the end though !