Game day traffic at USC is a mess. Without these people, it would be so much worse

The sharp trill of a silver whistle slices through the commotion of eager fans, loud music and the occasional rooster-crow horn outside Williams-Brice Stadium.

With two more short tweets of the whistle, Cpl. J.C. Elliott waves a swarm of garnet-clad Gamecock fans – and a smattering of Florida fans – across Bluff Road at George Rogers Boulevard.

It’s 10 a.m. on a chilly Saturday morning in Columbia, just two hours before the University of South Carolina takes on Florida at Williams-Brice. Elliott, one of about 100 state troopers tasked with traffic enforcement at USC’s game day, has been at his post for two hours, making sure that cars and fans move smoothly – and safely – around the stadium.

Fans engage in friendly chatter with one trooper while waiting for him to let them cross Bluff Road to get to Gamecock Park.

“Thank you, officer,” a young Gamecock yells to a trooper as he crosses Bluff Road with the crowd.

Nearby, two fans try to walk across National Guard Road while a trooper motions cars onto Bluff Road. With another blow of the whistle and a stern look from the trooper, they jump backward onto the curb again.

In the sweltering heat before early-season games, or the midnight hour after a primetime matchup, or the frantic run to reach their seats in time to jump up and down to “Sandstorm,” fans may wonder if the troopers blow their whistles or hold up traffic on a whim.

But, troopers say, moving fans, dignitaries and teams through the clogged streets around the stadium requires detailed planning that begins well before the season starts and continues in the early hours of each game day.

“It's not like we just step out on the road and figure it out,” said Capt. B.K. Floyd, who oversees the S.C. Highway Patrol’s game day traffic detail at USC. “There's a lot of planning, a lot of things we look at prior to.”

State troopers have provided traffic enforcement for Clemson and South Carolina home games since the early 1960s, according to Capt. Kelley Hughes of the Highway Patrol. In addition to football games, they are responsible for enforcement at other large-scale events, including the annual NASCAR races at Darlington and Myrtle Beach Bike Week.

Morning briefing

As tailgate tents and grills sprout up like flowers at the S.C. State Fairgrounds, across the street troopers begin game day with a briefing and pregame meal at Seawell’s Catering, usually about five hours before kickoff, or 7 a.m. before the Florida game.

There, they get their traffic assignments for the day and a heads-up on when to expect buses carrying the football teams, the marching bands and any dignitaries who may be attending the game.

With Columbia hosting the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry game Saturday, Floyd said troopers are bracing for more crowds – and hotter tempers – than normal.

“A lot of people come just to tailgate for that game,” he said. “You’re looking at bringing a lot more traffic in. Usually after the game, you’ll see tempers flare.”

The core group of 40 troopers is based in the Midlands and works every home USC game, Floyd said. The remaining spots are filled in with troopers from the Florence, Charleston and Orangeburg areas, who are selected by the troop captains of those regions.

Troopers get no overtime to work game day, which is part of their normal work week, according to Floyd. Some get up as early as 3 or 4 a.m. to drive to Columbia from the coast, and drive back at night after the game.

Each of the 19 traffic control points around the stadium has a supervisor and a handful of troopers. Floyd said they try to coordinate so that several traffic control points near each other are moving vehicles or pedestrians at the same time.

Communicating between those traffic control points is critical to avoid logjams.

“When one stop backs up, it has a trickle effect and can affect somebody two miles away,” said Lance Cpl. David Jones. “Each traffic control point relies on the other.”

‘Everything is by the second’

Planning for the moments that both teams’ buses arrive at the stadium begins days earlier.

Troopers have timed the Gamecocks’ trip to the stadium from the Bush River Road area to around 17 minutes and 30 seconds, Floyd said. Visiting teams typically stay either downtown or on Two Notch Road.

For the Highway Patrol, it’s easier when the visiting team stays downtown.

“When they come down Assembly Street, it’s a piece of cake,” he said. “We bring them down Assembly, down Rosewood and over to Bluff, turn them in front of the stadium and unload them. No problems.”

When the visiting team’s buses travel from Assembly Street, there’s no chance that the opposing team buses will pass each other. That’s because visiting locker room at Williams-Brice Stadium is located near the Fairgrounds under the west stands, while Carolina’s is at the opposite end of the west stands.

Bringing a visiting team in from Two Notch presents more of a challenge, Floyd said. That route requires the team to travel I-77 to Bluff Road – the same route taken by USC’s buses. The USC players disembark at Gamecock Park and greet fans while walking across Bluff Road, a relatively new tradition called the Gamecock Walk.

“If the home team got off I-77 on Bluff Road in front of the visiting team, the visiting team’s going to have to sit on their bus and wait for the Gamecock Walk,” Floyd said.

Troopers coordinate with operations personnel from the visiting team in the days before the game, which Floyd said involves some brokering over what time the team wants to leave and what time the USC team arrives for the Gamecock Walk. As the buses make their way to the stadium, troopers with each team relay their locations to supervisors and tell the drivers to slow down or speed up.

“We already have their landmarks – ‘When you’re here, he needs to be there,’” Floyd said. “Everything is by the second.”

After the traffic and crowds outside the stadium have died down and the game has kicked off, troopers head into the west end of the stadium to watch the action on TV. What they call the “ready room” is the same room where Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp and the players conduct postgame media interviews.

By the end of the third quarter, the troopers are back out at their intersections for postgame traffic.

‘It was gridlock, everywhere’

With more than 80,000 fans – and their vehicles – descending on Williams-Brice Stadium on a given Saturday, complaints about traffic are inevitable.

The most common complaints usually involve heavy traffic that kept fans from getting to their tailgate lot sooner, or fans who missed kickoff or pregame festivities because they were held up at an intersection by a trooper while walking to the stadium, according to Floyd.

Some missteps before USC’s home opener against Kentucky in September led to congestion and confusion. Floyd said traffic began rolling in earlier than expected for the night game, and the gates to the fairgrounds parking areas were not open when people started arriving. Additionally, the troopers’ pregame briefing ran longer than usual.

“We couldn’t even get our troopers out of the parking lot to get them to their intersections,” Floyd said of the traffic. “People were making their own lanes on Rosewood, trying to get to where they were going. It was gridlock, everywhere.”

Complaints submitted to the Highway Patrol or the university are examined during a meeting after each home game that includes university and athletics department officials, Floyd said. The number of complaints each week fluctuates, and Floyd said just under a dozen complaints have been forwarded to him this season.

“We all met that week afterward at the university and discussed what went wrong,” Floyd said of the Kentucky game. “Everybody got back on the same page, and everything went smooth from there on out.”

In addition to the weekly meetings with university officials, the core group of troopers who work game days meets before each season to go over traffic plans for the upcoming season and any changes to the traffic patterns. Floyd said the most significant change to game day traffic this season was the widening of Bluff Road near George Rogers Boulevard, which included the addition of sidewalks next to the stadium.

“In the past, we had to take one of the lanes, close it off and use that for pedestrians,” he said. “Now, we have four solid lanes with a middle turn lane, and we have big sidewalks.”

With 100 troopers herding thousands of people through the streets before and after games, Floyd said troopers have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze, particularly when it comes to things like jaywalking or alcohol consumption.

“You have to balance what you're there to do and what may arise,” he said. “You're going to have a jaywalker, people are going to walk across the road. Do you go write them a ticket and arrest them, take a trooper off the post for 30 minutes? He might get a tongue lashing; we've got to focus on what we're trying to do.”

Lou Holtz, Ric Flair and walking goal posts

Working games in Columbia for a decade or more gives more experienced troopers some interesting memories.

For troopers like Floyd, who grew up going to South Carolina football games, game days are bittersweet. Because they are working traffic, they are not able to take their own kids. Still, they enjoy seeing the excitement of other fans and their families.

“It’s always nice to see some of the celebrities that come,” Jones said, recalling visits to Williams-Brice by pro-wrestler Ric Flair. “He would stop at the side of George Rogers (Boulevard), get out and walk across and talk to everyone.”

Lt. Chris Shelton once stopped a wrong-way driver who was cutting through a median on Bluff Road before a game. The driver turned out to be then-head coach Lou Holtz.

“He says, ‘I’m trying to get to the stadium. I’m late,’” Shelton recalled. “And then once I realized who he was, I made arrangements for him to get back in and onto the stadium. Back then, I thought he rode the bus with the team, but obviously he didn’t.”

Floyd recalls traffic after a Gamecocks win in 2000, when celebrating students tore down the goal posts and carried them down George Rogers Boulevard toward Shop Road.

“I remember us just stopping everything and allowing them to tote the goal posts down George Rogers,” he said. “Where they were going, I don’t know.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Game day traffic at USC is a mess. Without these people, it would be so much worse."