Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- Friday will be especially difficult for Downtown Columbia visitors looking for parking.
The University of South Carolina has regular classes scheduled for Friday.
The Darla Moore School of Business is hosting an Innovation Summit through 6:00PM that includes collaboration with two other schools at UofSC.
The Koger Center for the Arts is hosting the Columbia City Ballet's presentation of "Cinderella" at 7:30PM.
And the first and second round of the NCAA Women's first two rounds of Tournament play will be hosted at the Colonial Life Arena starting at 5:00PM Friday, followed immediately after by a 7:30PM game.
This means traffic downtown, and parking, will be challenging for the combination of basketball fans, ballet fans, and students of business (and many other regular classes) at the University. Not to mention Friday evening's usual Vista watering hole & restaurant business.
The #1 seed, Coach Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks will take on #16 seed Savannah State starting at five, followed by #8 seed Syracuse and #9 Nebraska at 7:30.
PARKINGPARKINGPARKING
That's the big issue for all the events downtown.
$5.00 with Free Shuttles: Drivers can park at the old Capital City Stadium at 301 Assembly Street, or the parking garages located at Pendleton Street or Senate Street. Note: Both garages can be accessed from the 1000 block of Pickens Street. Shuttles will run every 20 minutes to and from the CLA two hours before the game, through one hour after the last game ends.
Garage Parking: There are a number of public parking garages near the Vista downtown, as well as along Main Street.
- City of Columbia garage at Park & Pendelton St.: Limited Parking Avail. for $5.
- UofSC's Discovery Garage at Lincoln & Washington St.: Limited Parking Avail. for $1 per hour.
- SC DOT Garage at Pendleton & Lincoln St.: Opens to the public for parking at 6:00PM.
Click below for a map of Parking options:
(mobile friendly: http://bit.ly/1EvJSHB)
After Friday night's games, the two winners will play Sunday night at 7:00 for the second round of the NCAA Women's Tournament, so downtown visitors should anticipate some parking challenges again, however, not quite as bad as Friday night is expected to be.
