SUNRISE, Fla. – People who attended the Sade concert Friday night at the BankAtlantic Center and parked at nearby Sawgrass Mills Mall faced a new charge.
Arena-goers who choose to park at Sawgrass will have to pay $30, then walk across 136th Avenue to go to an event at the BankAtlantic Center, where parking is $20.
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Some attendees of the Sade concert said they consider it a crime to pay $10 more than they would to park at the arena.
"To pay as much as you do for a ticket, then have to pay additional to park across the street -- it's ridiculous," concertgoer Melissa Walden told Local 10's Baron James.
Concertgoer Mary Smith says she chooses to park at the mall instead of the arena "because it's so hard to get out of there at the end of the show."
There was a free parking tradition at the mall for about 15 years, but as Sawgrass Mills grew in size and popularity, so did its own customers' demand for convenient parking.
"I think most people know that it's illegal to park at the mall and go to the concert," said Marcos Freire, the assistant general manager at Sawgrass Mills. "It's a huge issue for us. We sometimes get over 3,000 cars here, and it takes up our whole parking lot. So we are encouraging arena-goers to park at the arena."
Those who park at Sawgrass can recoup their $30, in a way, by spending at least $30 inside the mall.