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Planning for a Successful Homecoming Experience at UC

Photos By: Lisa Ventre

   At least 35,000 people are expected on the University of Cincinnati campus for Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 24, and that’s just for the football game alone. With the Homecoming Parade and other festivities, access onto and around campus will be challenging at times, meaning a good plan could be the key to making sure you have a good time.

A view of the crowd at last year's Homecoming game.

With game time having been announced last week as 3:30 p.m., the schedule for the day’s most-attended events includes:

11 a.m. – Hospitality Zone opens on McMicken Lawn
11 a.m. – Bearcat Blitz opens at Myers Alumni Center
Noon – Homecoming Parade begins
1 p.m. – Family Zone opens on Sheakley Lawn
1:10 p.m. (approximately) – CatWalk welcoming of UC football team to campus, as part of Bearcat Blitz
1:30 p.m. – Open practice to public of UC men's basketball team
3:30 p.m. – UC vs. Louisville football game
7 p.m. – UC vs. St. John’s men’s soccer game

Traffic on the streets around campus can be expected to be heavy at intervals anytime after 11 a.m. on Saturday, so those coming for the football game and/or other Homecoming activities are advised to allow for extra travel time.

The simplest choice for access to cash parking for those who will be arriving after 11 a.m. will be to use the Eden Avenue garage on UC’s Uptown East campus. This is also where RV parking will be available in the adjacent surface lots. Fans who choose this option will be provided with free shuttle service to the Uptown West campus beginning at 11 a.m., with dropoff in the traffic circle at the end of W. University Avenue. Shuttle buses will also pick up fans to go back to Eden Garage at that same site for up to an hour after the game ends.

Homecoming 2009 is presented by the UC Alumni Association and has as this year’s theme, “Connecting Bearcats.” The Homecoming Parade will feature approximately 50 units, including 17 float entries by UC student groups. The grand marshal for the parade will be the UC Dance Team, the reigning world champions in dance after their performance at last year’s World Cheerleading Championships.

For those who would like to attend the Homecoming festivities around UC but don’t have tickets to the football game, there will be opportunities to watch a broadcast of the game on campus in the Tangeman University Center’s Catskeller and on the big screen in the TUC Cinema.

Traffic Information

Information for when specific streets will be limited is as follows:

Congestion is likely around the northwest perimeter of campus from noon-1 p.m., when portions of Clifton Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will be in use for the Homecoming parade route. The parade route runs north on Clifton Avenue past the main entrance to the university, and then east on Martin Luther King Boulevard through Campus Green Drive.

Calhoun Street should be avoided from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. This is where the staging of entries into the parade will take place.

The least interrupted access point to campus throughout the entire day will be the routes from the direction of I-71 across William Howard Taft Road and onto Jefferson Avenue.

Parking Information

UC’s game-day parking garages are divided into two categories: pass-only and cash-only garages. In addition to the aforementioned Eden Avenue garage option (see above), the other cash-only garages are all located on the north and west perimeter of campus, and include Campus Green garage, Woodside garage and Clifton Court garage.
 
Those without passes will need to use the cash garages, with the only access to cash garages during the parade besides the Eden Avenue garage being the Campus Green and Woodside garages for traffic coming westbound on Martin Luther King from the Jefferson Avenue/Vine Street intersection. That access will be extremely limited because of parade units coming down Martin Luther King.

Pass-only garages include Varsity Village garage, CCM garage, Calhoun garage, Corry garage and University Avenue garage. As is standard procedure for all home UC football games, traffic on Corry Boulevard will be limited to one-way, incoming traffic across all lanes beginning at 1:30 p.m., two hours prior to kickoff.

University of Louisville fans who plan to attend the game are reminded that the official UofL pregame gathering is scheduled for noon in the Stratford Commons area, just west of Clifton Avenue. For more details, they should visit the University of Louisville athletics Web site.

Official UC Homecoming Web site

GoBearcats.com, UC Athletics Web site