No one complained about the quality of Paul McCartney’s last hoorah at Candlestick Park on Thursday night. But the gripes about getting to the ‘Stick abounded. In fact, the traffic was so horrendous to get to the stadium that McCartney started an hour late. Mark Matthews reports
No one complained about the quality of Paul McCartney's last hoorah at Candlestick Park on Thursday night.
But the gripes about getting to the 'Stick abounded. In fact, the traffic was so horrendous to get to the stadium that McCartney started an hour late. When he was supposed to have begun, the stadium was nearly half full.
One woman didn't even make it to hear him belt out "tomorrow, I'll miss you."
"It took us three and a half to four hours and we didn't even get into the stadium parking lot," Ruth McDevitt said on Friday, adding that she flew in from Pennsylvania to hear the former Beatle swoon. "I'm angry at the city. It makes me not want to come here anymore."
Before the Thursday night concert, one concert goer said while stuck in his car: “It’s insane. I’ve been in this crud for over two hours, right here at Candlestick.”
The man, who didn't give his name, wasn't the only one of the 50,000 fans who paid hundreds of dollars to hear McCartney's "Out There" concert to vent.
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Stephania Lewis, a 32-year-old attorney in Los Altos, told NBC Bay Area on Wednesday it took her more than three hours to take Interstate Highway 280 to the stadium - and she had avoided U.S. Highway 101 on purpose because that is "usually a mess."
When she arrived, she had to park in exterior parking on the grass and then "just run." She and her dad finally found their seats at 9:45 p.m.
Margie Cabral, 52, rented a limousine with friends from Livermore. They left at 5:30 p.m. and arrived at Candlestick Park in the south of San Francisco two hours later. "I'm just glad I didn't have to drive myself," she said Friday morning.
Lots of drivers couldn't find parking once they finally arrived.
"Insanity," tweeted Alex Drude. "Abandoned driver, walking final mile to #Candlestick. 10m to show. Passing hundreds of cars."
And the headaches weren't much better for those who took public transportation. NBC Bay Area's Gonzalo Rojas was in San Francisco, shooting video of long lines and crowded platforms at Muni, with everyone champing at the bit to get to hear McCartney swoon one last time.
Once inside, however, the cries of outrage turned into cheers for McCartney, who opened with “Eight Days a Week,” and played for nearly three hours, with no intermission.
Despite the awful traffic, Lewis said McCartney was "amazing."
"At 72, he's still got it," she said.
NBC Bay Area's Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report.
