Stadium To Install Slides – For Adults

If you've ever been to a  Broncos or Rockies game you understand the problem of  excessive parking fees, relentless street vendors and long ticket lines. And the fact is,  getting from the parking  lot to the stadium gate on game day is not a fun trip. Well, here's something that could make the journey to the stadium more enjoyable --and if noting else-- much more interesting. Officials of a soccer stadium in England may improve that experience by installing slides — just like at the playground — except, these slides are for adults.

A local business improvement district company proposed the slides as an alternative way into St James' Park in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. When teams have a soccer match at the stadium, more than 53,000 fans crowd down steps into the facility. The slides, which would be the first of their kind in the UK, could ease the crunch.

If approved, the slides at St. James wouldn't be in place until late 2013. Similar slides are already in use in Holland. They call them 'travel accelerators.'

"Being playful and doing something a little unusual aims to encourage people to spend more time here enjoying the city," Tom Robinson from Robinson Landscape Design, one of the companies which designed the slide, said. "We want people to ride the slide, then go up the stairs and do it again."

Aside from the obvious injuries bound to occur when adults are encouraged to hurtle themselves down a steep, rigid gutter, the organizers overestimate fans' willingness to 'play' on their way into the organized riot that they call a 'football match.'

Just imagine the hundreds of  laughs we'll get from you tube videos of Brits in slide fails. And who knows, if the slide actually works, maybe American stadiums will follow suit. Of course, in Grand Junction we don't need slides for sporting events. We just need more parking.