When the Pittsburgh Steelers practice on campus next week, Sgt. Alvin Allcon of TCU Police said he hoped there would not be an increase of traffic.
Allcon said there might be more traffic if the Steelers host a press conference on campus, but he expected most traffic to be in downtown Fort Worth and Sundance Square.
“There’s a lot of activity that’s been planned downtown,” he said. “The ESPN folks have actually already moved or are in the process of moving in downtown at Sundance Square and will be setting up there.”
Allcon said the Fort Worth Police Department and Landmark Security would be on campus, specifically around the athletic facilities to secure the closed practices.
This would ensure that people who come to campus to see players or coaches will not be able to do so, he said.
He added that TCU Police would play a support role to the Fort Worth Police Department.
“One of the Fort Worth captains has been given like the overall umbrella for the Fort Worth things that take place,” he said.
Allcon said the traffic division of the Fort Worth Police Department would provide an escort for the buses transporting the team to campus. The escort and buses might cause some disruption at a few intersections so that the buses can reach the secured drop-off area. Allcon said these disruptions would be similar to TCU game days, when the visiting team is brought on buses to the stadium from its hotel.
“It’d be a very short period of time that traffic may be just held up at an intersection or something while those buses go through,” he said.
If the Steelers hold a press conference on campus, Allcon said buses would bring the media to campus and those buses would be parked in Frog Alley. He said if this happens, the only disruption would be a possible re-routing of the shuttle buses from lots 3, 5 and possibly 4 to avoid Frog Alley while the buses are being unloaded.
Allcon said there are no plans to take away any parking from students.
“We’ve been pretty adamant that we’re not letting them have any of our parking lots,” he said. “Parking is already a concern for our community, with the construction and things that have gone on there. We’re not going to displace any of the students’ parking.”
He said the TCU Police is trying to direct Super Bowl and Steelers vehicles and buses to areas that will not affect any parking.
Allcon said there are no plans for any streets to be closed around the TCU campus. However, he said some streets in the downtown and Sundance Square area will be or are already closed. He said there is information about street closures on the City of Fort Worth website under the “Super Week” icon. He added that the website also includes information about events that are scheduled to happen in and around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Information about road closures and shuttles around the Fort Worth area is available at fortworthgov.org. Allcon also said that the website had many good resources for students, faculty and staff looking for activities to attend in downtown Fort Worth and Sundance Square under the “Super Week” icon.