1st crowd-control test for new Mosaic Stadium today

Football fans — and traffic officials — will experience the first major event for Regina's new stadium today when some 16,500 ticket-holders will gather for a game between the University of Regina Rams and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

There will be no on-site parking and no assigned seats. People will occupy the lower bowl seats of the facility, which is about 50 per cent capacity for the $278-million city-owned stadium.

Officials are advising people to use the free shuttle bus service as the Evraz Place parking lot will be closed.

"No public parking will be available on-site for guests attending the football game," officials noted in advance of the game, which starts at 2 p.m. CST. The gates to the new Mosaic Stadium will be open at noon and the bus service will be making trips from various locations around the city starting at 11:45 a.m.

While there are parking spots on the exhibition grounds, those will be needed for the football teams and officials. As well, there are other bookings in other buildings at Evraz Place, including a graduation ceremony and a trade show, and patrons for those events will be provided parking spots on the grounds.

Officials noted today is a test-run to determine how best to manage the flow of traffic and people. They said that more work will be done, before the start of the regular football season next year, to sort things out. There is also a plan to pre-sell some 900 to 1,000 parking spaces on the grounds during Roughrider games at the new facility.

For today's game, there are some nearby parking lots around old Mosaic Stadium that will be open to the public. The Regina Rams are operating the lots, charging $10 per car, and proceeds will support their football and scholarship programs.

People arriving by shuttle bus will enter the Evraz Grounds from Princess Street.

A key road in the area, Elphinstone Street, will be closed to vehicle traffic. Traffic on other neighbourhood streets will also be closed or limited to residents. Police will be providing traffic control through the day.

Here are the locations for the free shuttle service:

- Southland Mall.

- Normanview Mall.

- Victoria Square Mall.

- Northgate Mall.

- Downtown (at Scarth and Victoria).

Beginning at 11 a.m. there will be no vehicle traffic allowed on the 1500, 1600, and 1700 blocks of Elphinstone Street.