Tomorrow night (Tuesday) will be the first test of what happens with Muni and traffic when there is both a Giants home game and a big concert at the Chase Center, as Dave Matthews Band arrives just as the Giants are playing the Pirates.
The weekend Metallica shows, on Friday and Sunday, proved not so traffic-pocalyptical as many people imagined, and let's hope that holds true when there is also a game going on at the nearby Oracle Park.
Attendance at Giants games has been particularly low this year, so maybe there's nothing even to stress about here — the team even cut the price of 20202 season tickets this week by 80 percent in recognition of this season's dismal attendance numbers.
But the Warriors put out a press release Monday, encouraging fans to "Know Before You Go" — i.e. figure out your transportation plan that hopefully doesn't involve adding an extra vehicle to the area. As I wrote after Friday's opening-night show, the fastest, easiest bet to get in and out of Mission Bay is likely to be buses not trains — Muni is running these new event-day shuttles, the 78X and 79X, from Mission and 16th and Van Ness Avenue respectively, and they shoot you right over the hill to Third Street in less time than it takes the T to snake out of the vicinity — and the added bonus for nights when the Giants are playing is that these buses won't be filled with Giants fans before and after, and will therefore be less crowded.
The 22-Fillmore also goes almost right to the Chase Center.
And don't forget, every concert ticket is good for free Muni all day.
Previously: Chase Center Hosts Saturday Block Party; Muni Adds Special Arena Bus Lines