Scott Stadium: Guide for Visiting Fans

Charlottesville doesn't have a metro, light rail, or subway — that much you should internalize before you start planning. What it does have is the Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) system, which runs a free trolley between the UVA Corner/Grounds area and the Downtown Mall. CAT's free trolley connects Downtown Charlottesville, the UVA Corner, and UVA Grounds, and the whole CAT network is currently fare-free — no ticket or app needed. The trolley won't drop you at the stadium gate, but it'll get you to The Corner, which is an easy five-minute walk from the stadium's west side.

More usefully for out-of-towners, the Virginia Breeze intercity bus (Tidewater Current route) stops directly at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville , connecting from Richmond, Hampton Roads, Staunton, and Harrisonburg — genuinely handy if you're coming from a fan base within range.

Flying in? Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO) is only eight miles from Downtown Charlottesville, with daily nonstop flights from Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Philadelphia (PHL), New York (LGA), Washington D.C. (IAD), and Atlanta (ATL). The drive from CHO to UVA takes approximately 15 minutes for 9.1 miles. A rideshare or taxi from CHO will run you about $30–$40 and takes roughly 16 minutes. If you're flying into Dulles instead, IAD is just over two hours away by car or shuttle service.

Driving in? From I-64, take exit 118B toward Culpeper/Charlottesville, then take the second exit toward Business 250 East and bear right onto Ivy Road. At the second stoplight, turn right onto Alderman Road — Scott Stadium will be on your left after about 0.8 miles.

Rideshare is fine for getting there; getting picked up post-game is where it gets complicated (more on that below). Have the app ready before the final whistle.

Transit (shuttles): Shuttles run continuously through one hour post-game , but they get overwhelmed immediately after the final whistle. Wait 20–25 minutes inside the stadium — use the restroom, watch the recap on the new Breeden Videoboard, don't sprint for the gate — then join a thinned-out queue. Post-game shuttles for JPJ, Darden, D3, and North Grounds operate on a single-looped route; confirm your destination and enter the correct queuing line at the east or west gate. Fontaine and JPJ are separate queues with separate drop-offs — know which lot you parked in before you commit to a line.

Driving: The lots immediately surrounding the stadium choke hard in the first 30–45 minutes after a game. If you're in the Fontaine lot, the pedestrian path actually bypasses the main parking deck traffic on the way out — walk back, get your car, and exit via Fontaine Avenue to the 250 Bypass, which clears faster than Alderman Road. Budget a realistic 45–60 minutes to reach a moving highway if you leave immediately; wait 30 minutes and that drops to 20.

Rideshare: Surge will hit hard within five minutes of the final whistle. Your best move is to walk four or five blocks away from the stadium — toward The Corner on University Avenue or back toward Alderman near JPJ — and request your pickup there. Prices can be 2–3x normal from the stadium perimeter; a short walk pays for itself. Give it 20 minutes and surge typically eases.

The one tip: If you drove and parked at Fontaine, skip the shuttle entirely post-game. Walk the 0.83 miles back on the pedestrian path — it takes 15 minutes and you'll be moving while everyone else is standing in a queue.

The premium lots closest to the stadium — the orange lots off Alderman Road and McCormick Road — are controlled by the Virginia Athletics Foundation and are largely reserved for donors. Parking around the stadium itself is provided by the Virginia Athletics Foundation, and passes for those lots require a donation to the Foundation. In other words, if you didn't write a check this past spring, you're not parking next to the stadium.

The good news: there's real free parking available if you move fast. Free game day parking is available at Fontaine Research Park, North Grounds, and the lots surrounding JPJ Arena. Fontaine Research Park operates as a free "Red Lot" with a massive 3,200-spot capacity — but because it's free, it fills up incredibly fast. Arrive at least two hours before kickoff. From Fontaine, a dedicated, lighted pedestrian path runs exactly 0.83 miles to the stadium — a perfectly fine walk in good weather that also bypasses the main parking deck traffic jam on the way out.

JPJ Arena serves as the Yellow Lot hub; parking there runs $15–$40 per day depending on the specific lot, but offers complimentary continuous shuttles directly to Scott Stadium. JPJ is also easy to access from US-29, meaning you skip the tangled streets near the stadium entirely.

Fan shuttles begin three hours before kickoff and run continuously through one hour post-game. Know which shuttle queue you're in before you need it — Fontaine and JPJ/Darden/D3/North Grounds are separate lines at the gates. For the 2025 season, the quantity of free parking spaces was reduced due to construction throughout Grounds , so build in extra time and verify current availability on the official athletics site before game day.

The UVA Corner and West Main Street corridor is your best bet as an away fan — you're within a 10–15 minute walk of the stadium, and you're actually staying somewhere with character rather than a highway-exit chain. The Draftsman Hotel on West Main Street is the boutique pick, with a restaurant (The Ridley) attached and a walkable location that puts you between The Corner and the Downtown Mall. The Ridley is Charlottesville's destination for upscale-casual dining and fresh seafood, located within The Draftsman boutique hotel.

If budget is the priority, there are chain hotels along US-29 North — Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn — that work fine if you have a car and don't mind a 15-minute drive on game day. Downtown options are slightly pricier but earn their keep: you can walk to pre-game bars and post-game dinner without dealing with surge pricing or shuttle logistics. Book early; Charlottesville hotels fill up on football weekends faster than the fan base would suggest.

Boylan Heights — Your pre-game anchor on The Corner. Boylan Heights is a popular gourmet burger bar directly across from UVA, offering a great happy hour with deals on draft beers and milkshakes Monday through Thursday, with 20 large HDTVs making it an ideal spot for quality American food in a relaxed atmosphere. On game day it gets packed early, but the kitchen handles volume reasonably well.

The Virginian — A Charlottesville institution on University Avenue, one block from The Corner. Established in 1923, The Virginian offers classic American cuisine in a charming rustic setting and is popular among UVA alums seeking an authentic experience. The mac and cheese with a potato cake on top is a genuine reason to show up. Low pretense, solid pours.

Trinity Irish Pub — When you want to watch a different early game and have a Guinness without committing to a sit-down lunch, Trinity on the Downtown Mall fills that role. It's a short rideshare from the stadium and decidedly neutral territory — Irish pubs have a way of making everyone feel equally welcome, or at least equally not kicked out.

The Dairy Market — The Dairy Market Food and Beverage Hall opened in 2020 in the beautifully renovated historic Monticello Dairy Building, featuring a mix of restaurants, bars, and shops. It's a smart pre-game pick if you're coming in with a group that can't agree on a cuisine — everyone finds something, and you can still grab a Starr Hill craft beer to hold the group together.

While nearby spots offer great options, the stadium itself has plenty of food and drink to keep fans satisfied.

Alcohol is available for purchase inside Scott Stadium for those 21+, with a two-beverage limit per transaction. Expect to pay in the $10–$12 range for a domestic draft and around $12–$15 for a craft option; a basic meal (hot dog, nachos, or similar) runs roughly $8–$13 depending on the stand. All concessions are cashless , so tap-to-pay is your best friend. The concourse composting program is a genuine quirk — composting bins for leftover food appear throughout the concourse, with student volunteers helping fans sort properly. It's a small thing, but it tells you something about the UVA crowd.

Each guest can enter Scott Stadium with one large clear bag (12 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches, or a one-gallon clear plastic freezer bag) and an approved clutch purse no larger than 4.5 inches by 6.5 inches. Prohibited bags include purses larger than a clutch, coolers, briefcases, backpacks, fanny packs, cinch bags, and any bag larger than the permissible size. Leave the backpack in the hotel — this policy is enforced.

All gates open two hours prior to kickoff. Will Call is located at the East Gate and opens two hours prior to kickoff. Download your tickets before you arrive; the connectivity around the stadium gets stressed on game day and you don't want to be fumbling with a loading screen at the gate.

Virginia Athletic events are now cashless across all venues — all concessions, team shops, and ticket booths are card only. There are no ATMs inside, so don't bother looking.

Walk-through and hand-held wand metal detectors are the primary screening method — have your phone ready, pull it from your pocket before you get to the scanner, and the line moves fast.

ADA elevators accessing all floors are located in the South End Zone of Scott Stadium. Elevators accessing only levels three and four are located on the concourse outside of sections 128 and 104. All free game day parking lots offer ADA accessible parking and ADA accessible shuttles to and from Scott Stadium.

Co-ed family restrooms are available near sections 114, 117, 501, 515, and 539. For guests who cannot use a walk-through metal detector, hand-held metal detectors will be used at accessible screening lanes. Guests with medical bag needs can request an exception through the designated gate inspection process. If you need Jaunt paratransit service for getting to and from the stadium, Jaunt provides ADA transportation services for individuals in Charlottesville and Albemarle County — call 434-296-3184 to reserve a ride.

Scott Stadium does not designate a formal away fan section in the way major programs do, which means visiting fans scatter into whatever tickets they purchased — usually the upper deck or less premium areas. The upper deck (500-level) runs around the full horseshoe and, frankly, offers terrific sightlines. The stadium's bowl shape means there's no truly bad upper-deck seat; you're up and back, but the angles are clean.

For the best value as a visiting fan, look at upper deck sections in the 520s–540s range on the east side. They keep you closer to midfield without paying the price bump of the premium west-side seats (where the press box lives and the hometown crowd clusters hardest). The south end zone hill seating — "The Hill" — is general admission standing and gets occupied early by the more passionate student section; steering clear is sensible. Avoid the corners of the upper deck at the north end if sight angles matter to you.

Away fans venturing into Scott Stadium should prepare for a very different experience than the home crowd enjoys.

Scott Stadium is not a particularly punishing experience for visiting fans. The crowd is educated, wine-country adjacent, and more likely to shake their head at a bad call than to make your afternoon miserable. That said, don't mistake gentility for passivity — when the Cavaliers pull off something big, that open-air bowl gets loud in a way that sneaks up on you. The specific thing worth knowing: the Cavalier game-day tradition begins when a real-life mounted Cavalier charges onto the field with the football team, which brings the crowd to its feet in a way nothing else does. If you're already seated when that happens, you'll feel the energy shift. The stadium's natural grass, with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains out the south end , makes this one of the genuinely pretty places to watch college football in the ACC — even when you're rooting against the home team.

Is there a metro or light rail to Scott Stadium? No. Charlottesville has no metro or light rail. Your options are the free CAT bus/trolley network, the Virginia Breeze intercity bus (which stops at Scott Stadium), rideshare, or driving.

What is the bag policy at Scott Stadium?

Each guest can enter with one large clear bag (12"×12"×6" or a one-gallon clear plastic freezer bag) and an approved clutch purse no larger than 4.5"×6.5". Backpacks, fanny packs, and non-clear purses are not allowed.

How much does parking cost? Free parking is available at Fontaine Research Park and JPJ Arena lots. Paid lots near JPJ run $15–$40 per day. Premium orange lots closest to the stadium require a Virginia Athletics Foundation donation to access.

When do gates open?

All gates open two hours prior to kickoff. Will Call at the East Gate also opens two hours before kickoff.

Is Scott Stadium cashless?

Yes — cash will not be accepted. Bring a debit or credit card for all concessions, merchandise, and box office transactions.

Where should away fans sit? There's no designated away section. Upper deck sections in the 520–540 range on the east side offer solid midfield sightlines at a reasonable price. Avoid the south end zone hill unless you want to be surrounded by students.

How far is the airport from Scott Stadium?

Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO) is about 9 miles from UVA, with a road distance of 9.1 miles. A rideshare runs roughly $30–$40 and takes 15–16 minutes in normal traffic.

Can I bring outside food or drinks into Scott Stadium?

No food or beverage may be brought into the stadium at any time on game day. Tailgating outside is permitted (propane grills allowed; charcoal is not), but once you're through the gates, everything comes from the concourse.