At Leaders Week London on 7 October 2026, JustPark brought together The FA, Intuit Dome and the team that delivered World Cup 2026 parking to discuss a part of the fan journey that rarely makes the agenda: event parking. Jonathan Hampson, Managing Director UK at JustPark, chaired the panel with Josh Ambler, Senior Event Manager, On-the-Road at The FA; Juan Soto, Executive Director, Parking & Mobility at Intuit Dome and Kia Forum; and Charley DeBow, Managing Director, North America at JustPark. Their shared view was clear. Parking shouldn't be an afterthought, because for many fans it is central to the day.

Parking stress costs venues attendance, dwell time and spend

JustPark's annual survey of 3,000+ UK drivers puts numbers on the problem. 70% have avoided events such as football matches or concerts because of parking challenges, and 84% say parking issues have diminished their enjoyment of live experiences. The damage continues on the day itself. 22% arrived late and missed the start, and 48% left early, missing the final moments and post-match celebrations.

Fans told us what they want instead: 73% want a reserved space, 63% want a fixed price up front and 53% want a short walk to the venue. Jonathan noted that the last point divides opinion because the drivers who park closest are often the last to leave.

The commercial case is straightforward. Give fans an extra 10 minutes of pre-event dwell time, and they have a measurably better experience, with more food and drink spend per head. Over a season, that builds the loyalty that brings them back with friends.

Sustainable travel plans still need to cater for fans who drive

Every venue on the panel wants fewer cars on event day. None of them expects drivers to disappear. At Intuit Dome, Juan's team runs free park-and-ride shuttles from five pickup points within a 30-mile radius, plus a free on-demand micromobility service within six miles. The majority of guests still park.

Josh sees a similar picture at Lionesses fixtures, where around 60% of fans drive. A Tuesday 7.30 pm kick-off in term time attracts families who want to get in and out quickly.

World Cup 2026 tested the transit-only approach at scale. San Francisco's host committee pushed public transport from day one, then asked JustPark to sell more parking after the first match because the transit network couldn't absorb demand. Charley pointed to Taylor Swift's US tour as another example: parents driving groups of children were never going to take the bus.

Pre-booked parking gives organisers data to plan around

The FA's Community Shield in Cardiff showed what pre-booking makes possible. The fixture brought 60,000 fans from two clubs to the city, many for the first time, and the FA had one chance to get it right. Cardiff Council owns most of the parking in the city, and no pre-booking option existed for Cardiff events.

The FA, Cardiff Council and JustPark set up dedicated car parks for each club's fans, along with separate park-and-ride sites. JustPark sold close to 2,000 car parking spaces, with similar volumes for park and ride, plus coach parking. Josh was clear that the goal was spectator experience, not revenue. The booking data fed directly into the transport working groups and traffic management plans for match day.

At World Cup 2026, the data changed operations in real time. At Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, peak arrivals came 2.5 hours earlier than at an NFL game. Twelve of the 14 host venues were existing JustPark customers, so the team could compare each match with a normal game day and advise venues to staff up and open roads earlier.

The strongest venues manage parking as a system

Juan has run parking at Kia Forum since it reopened in 2014. Parking there started as a revenue line and grew into a core part of the guest experience. At Intuit Dome, his team joined during the build and helped shape the parking garage around how the venue would operate.

Today his team manages the journey from the motorway slip road to the parking space. City officials and private contractors all report into one parking and mobility team. Parking is fully cashless, and fans receive travel and parking information as soon as they buy a ticket. Intuit Dome already uses facial recognition for free-flow entry into the arena, and Juan's team uses number plate recognition in the garages with plans to go further.

Ticketing integration is the biggest lever, and the venue stays the hero

The panel closed on five principles behind every organisation that gets event parking right: offer a pre-book option, extend into nearby community supply, integrate with primary ticketing, run white-labelled fan communications and collect driver data.

Primary ticketing integration matters most. At Intuit Dome, fans add parking at the Ticketmaster checkout. Charley estimated that 35 to 40% of pre-bookings now happen at the point of ticket purchase, often months before the event. The venue knows who is coming and how many cars to expect, and can send the right directions early.

White-labelling keeps the venue front and centre. For World Cup 2026, JustPark built and hosted the parking website within FIFA's brand guidelines and sent thousands of emails that fans couldn't tell apart from FIFA's own. When traffic teams spotted a choke point half a mile from one stadium, JustPark rewrote the directions overnight.

How EventPass supports every parking model

JustPark works with venues across three inventory models, and EventPass, its pre-paid digital event parking pass, supports all three. Venues with their own car parks sell official on-site parking under their own brand, through a white-labelled landing page. Venues with some parking but not enough add nearby partner car parks, sold through JustPark Reservations alongside their own spaces. Venues with no parking at all, such as Brentford, or touring events like The FA's England games, rely on JustPark to source and manage third-party supply from operators, primary schools, residential driveways and local community spaces.

The FA uses EventPass for its on-the-road fixtures, and Multi-Day EventPass covers tournaments and festivals that span several days. Every booking includes the driver's vehicle details, which feed ANPR entry on the day and give venues the data they need for transport planning and sustainability reporting. With 13M+ drivers, 250K+ reservable spaces and 500+ sports and entertainment partners worldwide, JustPark gives venues the reach to fill that supply.

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To talk about event parking for your UK venue, contact Jonathan Hampson at jonathan.hampson@justpark.com.