[340] MTSU Prepares To Welcome TSSAA Players, Fans, Guests To Campus

MTSU PREPARES TO WELCOME TSSAA PLAYERS, FANS, GUESTS TO CAMPUS
Temporary Changes Planned to Accommodate Increased Traffic, Parking

FOR RELEASE: March 4, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: News and Media Relations, 615-898-2919

(MURFREESBORO)—If it’s March in Tennessee, it’s TSSAA time at MTSU—and time for temporary traffic changes, too!
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s High School Basketball Tournaments are getting under way once again at Murphy Center. The girls’ tournaments are set March 9-12, and the boys’ playoffs are scheduled March 16-19.
The biggest traffic change around MTSU will involve the east side of Middle Tennessee Boulevard, where tournament team buses will be parked during both tournaments. That will create a brief single lane of traffic heading north on Middle Tennessee between Lytle Street and Faulkinberry Drive.
As a result, the Faulkinberry entrance from Middle Tennessee Boulevard will be closed for the four-day duration of each tournament. Faulkinberry also will close at Normal Way.
MTSU’s Greenland Drive parking lots will be reserved for TSSAA ticketholders during the tournaments, and there will be a $5 charge for any vehicle parking in those lots. MTSU students, faculty and staff who usually use the Greenland Drive lots for parking should use alternate parking locations on campus during the brief busy period. (MTSU is on spring break March 7-13, however, which will help reduce congestion during the first tournament.)
Some of those alternate locations include reserved parking for vehicles with appropriate campus permits in the Woodfin’s, Maintenance, Horseshoe, Corral, S-Curve/Cason-Kennedy Nursing Building and Baseball parking lots. Visitors with appropriate permits also will be allowed to park in those lots.
Visitors attending the tournament games will be routed to outer parking lots surrounding campus, including the Tennessee Livestock Pavilion and Rutherford lots. All other scheduled campus events during the TSSAA tournaments will be allowed to park on a first-come, first-served basis in any of the usual non-paid lots, based on availability.
The Raider Xpress shuttle service will run its normal schedule during the TSSAA tournaments, with the exception of the "Green Route,” which will not serve Greenland Drive. Instead, the shuttle will serve the lots along Crestland Drive as normal, then re-enter campus behind the James Union Building and make its way around Old Main Circle by Peck Hall and Kirksey Old Main. The route then will take a right on MTSU Boulevard and head out of campus via Champion's Way back to Greenland Drive.
Please keep in mind that various construction projects are taking place across the MTSU campus, potentially causing or creating some traffic delays. With the expected traffic increases during the tournaments, Parking and Transportation Services officials are encouraging everyone on campus—students, staff and visitors alike—to allow extra time to reach their destinations.
For a printable campus map showing parking lots and travel routes at MTSU, visit http://bit.ly/MTParkingMap. For more information about the TSSAA state tournaments, visit www.tssaa.org or call 615-889-6740.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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IN BRIEF: If it’s March in Tennessee, it’s TSSAA time at MTSU—and time for temporary traffic changes, too! The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s High School Basketball Tournaments are getting under way once again at Murphy Center. The girls’ tournaments are set March 9-12, and the boys’ playoffs are scheduled March 16-19. The biggest traffic change around MTSU will involve the east side of Middle Tennessee Boulevard, where tournament team buses will be parked during both tournaments, creating a brief single lane of traffic heading north. More traffic and parking changes are detailed online at http://bit.ly/TSSAAtraffic. For a printable campus map, visit http://bit.ly/MTParkingMap. For more information about the TSSAA state tournaments, visit www.tssaa.org or call 615-889-6740.

For MTSU news and information anytime, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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