Major League Growing Pains
Valet parking in Bricktown has had its share of ups and downs the past several years. For a while, it was the wild west in Bricktown with some questionable operators casting a bad shadow on such services.
Efforts to regulate valet parking improved matters – but it looks like the city has an entirely new set of issues to consider. Before delving into this any further, read the following email I received from a reader:
Some may think its silly but there seems to be a battle every night at Mickey Mantels downtown for parking.
The poor Valets are caught in the middle, the police (usually about 7 of them) sit and wait for some one to park in the wrong
spot and then ticket them, whether they are the Basket Ball players or restaurant patrons, you might say what’s the big deal.
Since Mick Cornett and others worked so hard to bring them here we seem to ” not know how to act” other cities deal with this but in a more mature, professional manner.
The cops harassing the Valets in the reserved Valet parking and then the small stretch of CURB in front of Mickey Mantels.
You can go down any night that they have a Thunder game and watch the antics.The players/patrons of the restaurant request their car be parked up front, it gets parked (with them being told that it will be
ticketed) then comes the cops to ticket. The restaurant then eats the ticket. You may think its the restaurants business to eat the ticket if they so choose but some of these cops get harsh with the Valets. Lets pettion the mayors office to designate that stupid curb as parking for the valets, what ever it takes.
I made a few calls on this matter. It appears that the city is working with Bricktown on yet more revisions to the valet parking regulations. But there are some other issues involved here that aren’t so simple to address with a vote by the city council. Let’s start by naming names and getting down to the nitty gritty here: the Thunder players and visiting players with other NBA teams love eating at Mickey Mantle Steakhouse. I’m not exaggerating – they are in love with the whole atmosphere, the bar, the ability to have a private dinner late at night after a game, and they really love the steak.
And that’s great. That’s money coming back into the local economy. But Mickey Mantle Steakhouse has no parking. It provides valet parking. And some of the players, I’m told, aren’t very comfortable with giving keys to a $75,000 automobile to a valet. And so some, I’m told, would prefer to simply park along the curbside mentioned by the above reader. And police officers, well, if they’ve got nothing better to do, they write tickets.
Is this what happens in other major league cities? Or are there special accomodations made for major league players? I’m not the expert on this one – so I went to Berry Tramel, our sports columnist, who has spent a lot of time in the major league sports world.
His opinion? The players have “posses” who can handle their parking needs and setting aside special spaces in Bricktown probably isn’t needed.
Now I ask you the readers – how should this situation be handled? Should the meters across the street from the Mickey Mantle Steakhouse be bagged on game nights and reserved for players? Or should we ask the players to park across the street at the Power Alley Parking Garage? Or should we trust this problem to be resolved by the folks at COTPA?
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Comments
This issue has been discussed in Bricktown. There was already a meeting set up to listen all parties involved and work out a solution.
Jim
Why wasn’t this an issue that was thought of before the NBA came to town (especially this being the second time in 4 years)? Why did the city leaders push through a media blitz to make us a ‘big league city’ (and the subsequent tax extension) and not plan to have the infrastructure in place for things like parking? Was this considered when we voted on the ‘state of emergency’ to bring the Thunder here?
I’m enjoying the NBA in town. I think it’s helped to keep us from sliding into a recession like other cities in the region. But if we’re going to be a professional city, then we need to act like such beforehand, not having police bother valet persons.
Not sure if I get your gist Danny. Are you saying the parking infrastructure isn’t sufficient for the crowds going to the NBA games? If so, I’d advise you to check out the parking for yourself. I’ve seen parking offered up for free in Bricktown on the Thunder’s opening night (a packed house) and dozens of FREE parking spaces went unused.
Wouldn’t this be more of a parking management issue?
Sorry if it was confusing, I do think it is a parking management issue. I didn’t convey my thoughts in a concise way.
It sounds to me like the players are basically saying they are going to park on the curb because they don’t care about paying a $150 ticket.
This idea that they aren’t comfortable giving their keys to a valet doesn’t make any sense. It would be the same in any “big league city”. Is it that Mickey Mantles’ valets don’t look professional or trustworthy? Otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense to me.
I think the solution for the NBAers not wanting to turn the keys of their Bentleys to a valet would be to just bring the Escalade instead. 
Why I think we should trust the people at COTPA to fix the problem, that sounds like a great idea.
In all seriousness though, the police substation should have NEVER been put in Bricktown if it was going to mean we can’t park anywhere without getting a parking ticket. This is one of the many reasons I hate cops.
It would be relevant to look at a variety of cities, not just Seattle. Isn’t it just a $10 or $15 ticket? In the scheme of things, if you’re making 3 to 6 million a year, that’s tiny. I also don’t think it’s the issue of valet that necessarily scares the players, it’s where they park. The valet lots for many of the places in downtown are out of sight – even in Chicago it’s rare to see valet drivers running such a distance to get a vehicle.
Related to Nick’s comment – Steve, have you ever noticed how often Police vehicles park in front of the station and use up spaces that citizens could use? When I used to try to frequent BrewHaHa that really annoyed me.
Why can’t the city just designate the curb in front of MM’s as available for parking by MM’s Valet’s? That way, just as in Dallas or most other mid-sized cities the “nicer” vehicles are parked up front. This is good for everyone. 1. Valets don’t have to move the Bentley, Ferrari or giant F-350 more than 10 feet (if that). 2. The players (and anyone else with these transportation means) are being hassled by traffic cops who could be perusing the other, more dangerous parts of the city to rid it of drunk drivers and gang related activities. 3. MM’s get’s to look like the “hot place to go” with all of its patrons’ flashy modes of transportation shining under their stoop.
this needs to be worked out by the valet services, restaurants, and car owners. It is not the responsiblity of the city to allow preferential parking for a select group. The streets are public domain… not selective domain. Your going to tell me that the players don’t valet in LA.