Best place to park on game day for free??

Get there a week in advance and park on one of the side streets in the student ghetto, otherwise I don't think you will be able to find a spot for free.

if you want to park free and close to the stadium, you can park on the street in the neighborhoods off of Main St or in the triangle bordered by State St / Packard / Stadium, but you're going to have to get there awful early and endure some evil glares from students / townies who forgot to park their car in the street the night before. best place for free parking is one of the student lots on North Campus, take the bus down to Central campus and then walk across the Diag and to the game, but granted it is a far ways away. 

And if you arrive at 10am, good luck buddy, you're paying for parking.

You go a couple blocks down East U and the parallel streets, the parking's free...but going to be a bitch to find on a game morning after everyone set in after a night of drinking. 

If it has to be free, your best bet is not around campus.  Go down Main-Saline far enough there's some free, Stadium sidestreets (for EMU last year, I had to leave right after the game, so I drove, and found a spot right on the first sidestreet over the bridge past the Stadium.  But I was there pretty early). The neighborhoods are probably a better bet than around campus.

Get there early as balls and park out in BFE, like near Oxford Housing.  It's not impossible if you get there early (7 or 8).

Parking and walking is great.  It is totally worth parking far away (miles, even) so you can walk through town and neighborhoods and meet all the fans, feel the atmosphere, see tailgating, smell the food, see beer cans getting thrown at rival fans, just soak it all in.

That said I have parked at AAA on Main St for ten years so I'm really not sure...

your couch

The Target in Brighton.  Bring your walking shoes!

Usually you can find a spot on the other side of packard near Wells (N of Stadium) in the subdivision.

 

Also, you could just drive a motorcycle and park between cars that a parallel parked right next to Elbel like I do.

I don't remember how early my parents got there, but they parked for free in the business school garage.  I want to say they got there around 9 or 10am for a noon kickoff (it was the Purdue game).

A street called Pauline Blvd intersects with S Main at the NW corner of the stadium.  Take that west for about 1 mile and you will start to see open parking (as late as 30 min before the game starts). If all else fails, there is a church on the right hand side (while traveling west), turn right there and it breaks off into more residential houses and parking is wide open.

 

 

Sure enough.... .93 miles

 

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Ann+Arbor&1s=MI&1a=%5B800-899%5D+Redeem…

Is it possible to park anywhere for free on game day?  I highly doubt it. 

My dad and I always park in student housing yards off of Hill Street for $25.00.

When I've gone to games with friends, we usually park at one of the millions of spots on State Street for $10.00 and then walk down the railroad tracks that lead to Crisler. 

The problem with the Ann/Catherine/Thayer/Ingalls area is that there's a ton of student housing, which means street parking is typically already being used. And I thought they were designating that a resident-only parking area at some point?

Your best bet is a residential area that's not heavily into student-housing, and is far enough from the stadium to not have those "No parking football Saturdays" signs.

Many good suggestions above (below?) -- east of Packard, by Burns Park (Wells/Baldwin/Granger), west of 7th St/north of Stadium on the west side, Iroquois by Packard/Stadium, or a fave place of mine that does entail some walking -- by the old Argus building at 3rd St. and Washington.

If you arrive at 10 you'll find street parking at all of those locations. I'd base my decision on where I was going after the game, and which parking spot was closest to where I wanted to be/get to.

Closest reasonable spots to East Quad are likely in the Burns Park area, maybe on Olivia or Lincoln.

I usually park on one of the side streets or apartment complexes on Main, south of AnnArbor-Saline.  Yeah, it's about a mile and a half walk, but it's nice to get exercise before you're going to be crammed in for 3-4 hours.

EDIT: If you park at one of the complexes, make sure you park near the road, and try to be around a few other cars.  They don't like people using their parking as public domain.

The problem with free parking is that it usually means you are parallel parking on the street.  Where do you set up your grill and chairs so you can eat and drink beer during the 5 1/2 hours before kickoff?

Go west on Scio Church off of AA-Saline, turn left into the neighborhoods, park on the street,  then walk through the woods (manicured cross country trails) and into the Pioneer lot from the back.  It's a beautiful walk as you crest the hill and see the stadium lying below.  And it's less that 10 minutes walk to get to the pay parking at Pioneer.  I've never had a problem parking there in the last 20 years. 

If you park it in the middle of Stadium they'll valet it to a fenced-in property for you.

Best place to park is on state street in the mall parking. If you don't wanna walk you can take the shuttle which costs 2.50 one way which isn't bad.

meijer on ann arbor saline road. it has a huge parking lot. but it's quite a walk