Game Set Shad: Crowds are back at BNP Paribas Open this year so plan ahead
A perfect storm for fan attendance seems to be happening this year at the BNP Paribas Open as the grounds have been swamped with patrons each of the first five days of the event, with crowd sizes returning to pre-pandemic levels if not larger.
Often-empty outer courts are packed. Restaurant and concession lines are longer than in recent years. Every Instagram spot, every Adirondack chair, every practice court on the grounds seems to be populated with tennis fans happy to be back.
Tournament officials confirmed that the first four days were tracking right in line with 2019, which produced a record-setting 475,372 visitors over the course of the two weeks. About 100,000 tickets were sold between Monday and Thursday.
There are a couple of logical reasons why more fans may be attending the Indian Wells Tennis Garden this year.
The first that comes to mind is a general return to normalcy. Even though the event returned to its March perch in 2022, the world was still coming out of the Omicron surge and the event required vaccination. This year, there is no vaccination requirement, and tennis fans from the desert and around the globe can attend with no hesitation for the first time since 2019.
A four-year longing for your favorite sport? That's enough to make any fan make a plan to come to "tennis paradise."
Of course, the weather is always a factor, and the conditions have been tremendous this year and seem to have gotten better every day as the temperatures are warming up near 80 degrees. Early on, the nights were chilly as evidenced by the bundled-up players during the Eisenhower Cup on Tuesday, but those chilly night-time temps have been replaced by mild night-time temps.
The week before the BNP Paribas Open started, conversely, was cold and rainy -- a rare thing around the desert. It all adds up to a community that was ready to get out of the house and has been longing for temps in the high-70s and low-80s for months now during this cooler-than-normal winter.
Naturally, along with increased attendance comes some inconveniences like increased traffic and longer lines.
If you're heading to a huge international event, you should expect delays and be prepared for traffic. Parking is free this year, so that helps speed up the arrival process with no parking attendants tinkering around with scanning cell phones and such, but traffic is certainly a part of the day and that usually goes double for the weekend. Plan ahead by leaving early or consider alternative transportation methods like ride-sharing companies.
And when it comes to beating those long lines for food and beverages, focus on the tennis. Don't wait until the big match ends to grab your food along-side the other 16,000 people in Stadium 1, but instead go against the grain. And with the venue being cashless and paperless, lines do move faster than they used to.
The grounds are buzzing this year. You'll want to be a part of it. A little pre-preparation can go a long way.
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: BNP Paribas Open: Large crowds are back at Indian Wells this year so plan ahead
