Drastic changes coming to gameday parking, RV lots in 2020

In the roughly year and a half under Pat Chun’s leadership, the athletic department has undergone some massive overhauls. The noticeable ones are coaches of three of the school’s five biggest sports being fired and replaced, all in short and tidy order. But there are smaller, less obvious changes to the way Washington State does business.

The one that occurred today (well, really a year from now) might be the largest “business” change in Chun’s relatively short tenure. In an email to Cougar Athletic Fund members and season ticket holders, Chun announced drastic changes to gameday parking for the 2020 season, including lot level changes and, for the first time ever, passes will not be included with season tickets.

Lets take a look first at this year’s parking map:

And now lets take a look at next season’s and the changes with some quality MS Paint arrows:

The big change is, obviously, the parking passes are no longer included with season tickets with the right to purchase one included with your tickets. Prices for most will range between $140-$175 for the 2020 season, which will be 7 games. The number of tickets you have and your donation level also determine how many additional passes you get the right to purchase with your tickets.

The other change is the flipping of some donation levels for lots near Martin Stadium. The lot near the vet med building is being downgraded to AA with the lot near Johnson Hall and Wilson Road being upgraded to premium. Though the range of AA does touch the minimum for premium, it’s likely there are some folks that are going to be switching lots come 2020. The change does feel practical though, as the vet med building lot is further away (albeit marginally) from the stadium.

For those who drive RVs and tailgate, big changes are coming as well. Season permit costs are going up $175 for Lot 1 (the main lot by Beasley) with the donation requirement more than doubling to $2,500 per year. The season passes for the remaining lots will increase $140 per year and the donations will go up $250 per year.

These feel like a moves that had been coming for quite a while. That’s a substantial chunk of money WSU Athletics had been leaving on the table for scholarships and though we won’t go too deep into the back of the napkin math on this, it’s definitely in the six-figure range if not pushing a million. The good news is this won’t be a surprise and everyone has a year to plan for it (probably not a coincidence Chun released this on the first day of the new fiscal year when monthly donations were processed and you can call the CAF to get everything bumped without much of an issue owing money wise come next spring) instead of it being sprung on us after the season.

We also found out how much season tickets will be in 2020 with price bumps on the tickets themselves, largely due to addition of a home game. I didn’t see any increases to the donation requirements for the seats; probably wise to not do in the same season as big parking increases.

All the information for next season can be found on one handy dandy page.