<p>If parents visit on a football weekend , is there a problem with traffic and crowding at the restaurants ? Is it hard to get tickets to the game? My parents can't decide football v non football weekend. Thanks.</p>
<p>Assuming they will need to stay in a hotel, getting a room for a weekend may be the biggest issue for them. That can hold true for non football weekends also though. It just depends upon what else is going on in town that weekend. It’s best they decide now and make a reservation. Getting tickets is easy, unless it’s Ohio State which loves to fill Memorial Stadium with it’s fans. Traffic: getting into/out of the game can take some time, but it’s not too bad. You may have a wait for a restaurant immediately after the game if it ends around 5 or 6, but if it’s over by mid afternoon the restaurants don’t seem to back up as much. (ie an 11:00 starting time means a 2 or 3:00 finish time typically)</p>
<p>It will be very hard to get a room on parents weekend, as IU is playing Western Michigan, which is one of the best teams in the Mid American Conference and has a large following. They played a bowl game in Texas last season and it is a big deal when their fans play Big Ten teams. They play at IU and Michigan this year. Last year, they played at Nebraska and beat the University of Illinois in a game at Ford Field, Detroit. I checked for Sept 11-13 weekend and the Hilton, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn by Marriott, and Courtyard by Marriott are already sold out; the following weekend (no football game), though, they have a lot of rooms at these hotels, with the Hilton and Courtyard beginning in the 159 dollar range. Its probably already too late to get a decent hotel room in Bloomington for parents weekend, unless you stay at the Crowne Plaza, which wants an exhorbitant $250 per night that weekend per their website.</p>