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Sports Complex Traffic Sucked So Bad that Fans Started Bailing on the Eagles Game and Nate Bargatze Show

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 8th, 2025 · 10:24 AM EDT

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Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but apparently there was gridlock at the South Philly sports complex on Thursday night. The Eagles played the Bungles at the Linc and there was a Nate Bargatze comedy show at the Wells Fargo Center across the street. It seems as though they once again did the thing where they closed off highway exits, and that resulted in some people sitting in their cars for 3+ hours, trying to get into the lots:

@kristasaunders3

Worst ride into Philly game ever! #eagles #nbc10 #abc6 #traffic

♬ original sound – KruseingAlong

A reader sent us some more specifics.

Their experience, paraphrased:

You guys have to write about the absolute shit show of traffic. We left my house at 5:30p in Delco, takes about 30 minutes to get to Wells Fargo Center. Bargatze show was at 7 p.m., but Broad Street exit off 95 was closed by the police. Then we were re-routed, saying we would get to the lot at 8 p.m. Wife and I ended up bailing and we went to dinner in South Philly instead..

Reader pointed us to a thread at R/Bargatze, where other unfortunate souls shared their experience:

• Anyone else not even make it to the show because of the abysmal traffic control at the Wells Fargo Center and Lincoln Financial Field? Apparently they started the show late because half the audience hadn’t arrived yet. They closed off access points to Wells Fargo (11th st, Darien st) because of the Eagles game. We finally got out of there after sitting in traffic for 3 hours straight.
• 3 hours from cherry Hill NJ. Maybe saw 25 minutes of his act. Horrible traffic
• We drove in from Jersey and it typically takes us 1hr and 10mins.  Left at 5:15 and gave up at 8:30 because we weren’t even close to getting into the lot.  The fact that all lot entrances were blocked off and they funneled all cars into one entrance is crazy.  Poor planning with the Eagles game and no where near enough staff to direct traffic.  Bought 7th row tickets as a Xmas present for my wife.  Currently sitting in a Jersey diner instead at 9:45.  Ridiculous.
• What in the ever-living fuck was that all about? My wife and I sat on 95 for 2 hours before calling it at 8:30 and we weren’t even close to getting onto Broad street. Turned around at the next exit and saw that the Broad St exit northbound on 95 was blocked off by police. Like Jesus tap dancing Christ, was this just a logistical fucking nightmare?
• Same! Saw 45 mins of show–3 hours of traffic! Total bust of a night
• Left New Jersey at 3:45 and four hours later, we couldn’t get close to getting off of that final exit by the Eagles stadium. It was genuinely sad and frustrating.
• I got out of my car to talk to other drivers and the Eagles people were basically told to go to one lot, then got turned away and sent to another where they got turned away and on and on. I think since they didn’t allow access to Wells Fargo via 11th or Darien, a lot of Wells Fargo people took up all the Lincoln Financial parking and both sides got screwed. The cops didn’t even let a guy whose wife was 8 months pregnant and having a panic attack drive down Darien. That’s when I knew none of us were going anywhere.

Whatever they’re doing down there, it’s not working. It’s gotten exponentially worse over the last year. Exits blocked, poor traffic direction (or none at all), basically a Ted Nugent-style free-for-all after the games and concerts. The shit show of all shit shows. It’s so bad now, that if you don’t have access to the Broad Street Line, you’re questioning whether or not it’s even worth trying to drive down there. Not joking! Not hyperbole! I’ve talked to a lot of people over the last month or so, readers, friends, etc, and they say all say some version of the same thing, that the traffic and the lack of control is such a disaster that they’ve made the decision to stop driving to the sports complex entirely. These are people, mind you, that don’t live near regional rail and can’t easily get to Fern Rock. They’re not anti-mass transit, they just aren’t close to it.

At this point, don’t you have to start getting into conspiracy theory territory? Is someone doing this on purpose? Is this a Philly urbanist psyop? Are they surreptitiously snarling traffic as a middle finger to suburban drivers? Are we being used as unwitting pawns in the fight for SEPTA funding? Is this somehow connected to the larger sports complex redevelopment? Who is trying to leverage who? Are the cops in on it (or is it simply an overtime and $$$ issue)? How did this go from completely tolerable to a monolithic joke, despite the layout being exactly the same?

Also, doesn’t Russ look like Bargatze?