Can SF withstand Dave Matthews concert and a Giants game in the same night?

Image 1 of 2

For the first time, there will be events at both Oracle Park and the new Chase Center arena in San Francisco at the same time. 

With Dave Matthews Band set to play at 8 p.m. at the city's newest major concert venue that opened last Friday, and the Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates at 6:45, city officials are heavily encouraging public transportation for both sports and music fans to arrive at their respective events in a timely fashion. 

Last week, when Metallica performed with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra there were no major issues or problems other than the usual congestion of people living and working around the Mission Bay area, where both the arena and ballpark are located. 

 "We were really pleased by the number of people who took public transit,' said Chase Center spokesperson P.J. Johnston. "We think tonight is definitely going to be a new set of challenges. We think the city is up to it and we think we've done everything we can to encourage people and give them opportunities to take other modes of transportation." 

Some of the people who live and work in Mission Bay certainly hope that's the case. People we spoke with said they're waiting to see just how crowded it could get here Tuesday night. 

But KTVU's Paul Chambers covered the events Tuesday night and said it wasn't all that bad. For the most part, he didn't see any major traffic issues and that it was business as usual. That could have been aided by the fact that the events started roughly an hour and a half apart. 

"I did expect a lot of traffic coming in because of both events. But it was pretty easy," says Frances Sison of Burlingame.  

"The train was a little packed. We were glad that we came early. We didn't want to hit any traffic," said Concord resident Carla McClean. 

Lorna Saroff, who works in the area, said she was going to head out early around 3:30 p.m. or 4 p.m. "It probably won't be a problem. I'll see people walking around, but it's not going to be gridlock until 4:30 or 5 p.m., then forget it." 

Christina Kouma, who also works in the area said one of her colleagues at UCSF had to rent a parking space because she couldn't deal with street parking any longer. "It's definitely busy around here. What can you do? It's San Francisco, we wait in lines and we get stuck in traffic." 

Earlier in the morning, the massive screen at the Chase Center had the full BART and Muni schedule on display, complete with departure times and route numbers; making it clear, public transit is a priority.

Chase Center can hold more than 18,000 people, but only has parking for 900.  

Another incentive is that anyone with a ticket to a Chase Center event can ride Muni for free. 

For the Dave Matthews Band concert, Chase Center is running free Muni shuttles to the arena from 16th Street BART station.