When Disaster Strikes…

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend a major concert in Toronto. We had been anticipating the event all year long. My friend had gone on line the minute the tickets went on sale. As a result we were able to purchase very good seats. When we left Cobourg the weather was clear. The weatherman was forecasting a major snow storm, but we thought that the storm wouldn’t arrive until after we had returned home. Boy, were we wrong! As soon as we reached Toronto disaster struck! Snow had already started to fall and Toronto was at a near standstill. We fought our way through the slow traffic and slippery streets. The traveling through Toronto was bad enough, but when we finally arrived at the Rogers Centre and started to look for a parking spot, all hell broke loose! Everyone was looking for a spot to park! We drove around the Centre and finally found an open parking garage. We followed others into the building. It was one of those parking garages that go round and round. It was suppose to allow two way traffic, but everyone was driving in the middle. I should have realized there was a problem because the line of cars was moving so slowly. We finally got to the bottom of the garage only to find out that it was full! It was a dead-end! There was no place to go! To make matters worse, inconsiderate drivers parked in no parking zones making it almost impossible to turn around. Frankly I thought we were going to be stuck there for hours. Somehow we got turned around and started the long trek back up to the entrance. When we finally reached the entrance we were amazed to see drivers entering the parking garage. Who knows what happened to them! We were just glad to be back out into the fresh air. It was beyond belief that there were no parking attendances monitoring this garage! It was now about 8:10 pm, the concert had started at 8:00. Our friend is disabled and needed to be close to the Centre. I stopped the car just across from one of the Centre’s main doors and let our friend and Judi out of the car. They would make their way to our seats while my daughter and I would look for a parking spot. After driving around, we found another parking garage some distance away. It was part of one of the downtown hotels. We parked the car and then hailed a taxi to take us to the Centre. We finally arrived at the concert 45 minutes later. We took our seats and started to enjoy the concert. It was spectacular, well worth the year’s anticipation! Once the concert was over, disaster struck again, this time in the form of utter confusion on the part of Rogers staff. They were totally unprepared for the number of seniors and disabled persons who needed assistance. There was not enough staff on hand. There weren’t enough wheelchairs available. Seniors and the disabled stood waiting for help. The clean up staff was on the floor before all had left and grabbing chairs that should have been available for those who needed to sit. Some of the Rogers staff tried to help by bring chairs, but it was a losing battle. I don’t blame the staff; they were just overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. We waited by one of the doors waiting for help. When we were acknowledged, we were told we had to wait for our turn, that there a lot more people in front of us. Finally, after an hour’s wait, we made our way to the set of elevators that were being used to transport seniors and the disabled. There was a long line up for the elevators. The problem was, one of the elevators was not working! According to one the staff members it had broken down that morning and hadn’t been fixed. The one elevator was being used not only to transport seniors and disabled, if was bring people from all levels down to the underground parking area. It seemed to take forever between stops, even though there was a Rogers Centre employee operating the elevator. Once upstairs, the disaster continued! We were directed to the gate were there would be lots of taxis waiting. When we got there, there were none, only limousines and buses. When a taxi finally did arrive it turned us down because we weren’t going far enough!
I know that the Rogers Centre can’t control the weather. I know they can’t really control the taxis. However, this was a major event that had been in the works for well over a year. Experience with this type of event would have told them that there would be a lot of seniors in attendance and that they would need assistance. They must have known that there would be a lot of vehicles wanting to find parking spaces. So here are my concerns and questions. Why didn’t the Rogers Centre management prepare a better plan? Why didn’t they hire more (if they hired any at all) Metro Police to control traffic? Why didn’t they work with surrounding parking garages to ensure that there would be garage staff on hand? And finally, why didn’t they have enough service staff, wheelchairs and elevators available to help those who needed help? Surely they made enough money on this event to spend a few dollars more for proper staffing. Surely they could have hired an elevator repair person to be on hand in case of an emergency. And surely, they could have had a better plan in place to handle this size and type of crowd. If the Rogers Centre is going to hold this type of event and charge as much as $125.00 per ticket, they must become better organized! What if an emergency had occurred? What was their contingency plan for seniors and the disabled? Would they have reacted diffenently? If they would have, why couldn't they control a normal situation? Shame on you Rogers Centre management for dropping the ball so badly. You made yourselves and Toronto look like a bunch of amateurs. This article is dedicated to those who had to endure this disaster.