MLB Giants Hope To Prevent Repeat Of Last Year's "ChaosFest" At Saturday's Celebration

MLB Giants officials hope that a "few changes, plus an expected decline in attendance one year removed from the title, will prevent Saturday's FanFest from being another ChaosFest," according to Henry Schulman of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The Giants estimate that last year 35,000-40,000 "tried to attend a five-hour event that ordinarily drew 20,000 people." The result was "gridlock in the streets surrounding the ballpark after parking lots quickly filled and entrance lines that were so long, in the hours before gates opened," Giants CEO Larry Baer went on KNBR-AM and "implored fans who were not there already to stay home." Organizers had "meetings and discussed potential changes" for this year. They considered "requiring tickets, which would have been free, but would have rendered the event more orderly." Giants Senior VP/Communications Staci Slaughter said the team's '10 World Series win made last year's FanFest "unique." She added, "We feel if we have more of a regular year in terms of crowds, we think it's manageable. We didn't want to completely rearrange things in one year." Organizers will "add autograph stations and scatter them around the park more, including on the field and in the upper deck, to help crowd flow." Additionally, staffers will "try to do a better job directing fans to events away from the most crowded area" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/2).