Cowering behind his bright orange flag, the parking attendant in Mowatt Lane Garage yesterday looked like he wished he were anywhere but there. Frustrated students, faculty and visiting fans clamored around him, on foot and in cars, horns blaring, all asking the same thing: “Where can I park?”

With 19,000 parking spaces for 50,000 people, Transportation Services Director David Allen knew traffic and parking for last night’s game against Virginia Tech would be tight. And although Transportation Services spent thousands of dollars to ensure that parking went smoothly, Allen spent hours driving around the campus taking care of various parking glitches.

A major issue was the confusion surrounding Mowatt Lane Garage, which had a sign claiming it was for “Non-permit holders,” when it was only for Terrapin Club season ticket holders.

There was also confusion over an e-mail sent by Transportation Services, which stated, “If cars plan to remain on campus beyond [4 p.m., Lot 1 ticket holders] may park in Regents Garage or Mowatt Lane Garage.”

Students were allowed to remain parked after 4 p.m. in Mowatt Lane Garage as long as they were there before 4 p.m., Allen said. Many students, however, didn’t understand the wording of the e-mail, and were upset when they were turned away from the garage after 4 p.m. Confused students drove up to the parking attendant, who eventually began waving through random cars, with or without a permit.

Senior accounting and finance majors George Kim and Winny Kalsi stood in front of the parking garage, trying to ask the parking attendant whether their cars would be towed if they were left there. The attendant just shook his head, pointed in a general direction, and walked away.

“The people at Regents told us to park here, but that’s not what my parking permit says,” Kalsi said. “I have no idea what the right answer is, but I just don’t want to get towed.”

Allen, during his tour through the campus looking for problems, noticed the sign. After failing to pull the sign down himself, he contacted Transportation Services and told them to fix the error immediately.

Allen also made sure another employee would come to the garage to accompany the parking attendant, an employee of Landmark Parking Inc., the contractor the university hired to help handle the crowd.

“As much as we try to brief our contractor about our policies, it’s hard to let everyone know what’s going on,” Allen said. “It’s a very complicated situation tonight.”

Students who were mistakenly told they could park at the garage would most likely not be towed, Allen said.

“We only have so many tow trucks,” he said. “Unless cars are parked in a reserved space, cars will not be relocated.”

More problems awaited Allen in Lot 1, where hundreds of fans were tailgating. A Virginia Tech fan bus had pulled in the lot hours earlier, and was asked to leave, but was unable to turn around and leave the lot due to the amount of cars.

“That bus should never have been here,” said Allen, stopping to allow three Virginia Tech fans carrying a long beer pong table across the parking lot.

Allen was also called to the College Park Metro Station, where there were hundreds of Virginia Tech fans waiting to get on buses specifically chartered for the football game. There was a holdup with one shuttle, however, which had slight damage after being hit by a Prince George’s County bus.

Two hours before game time, Allen seemed confident everything was going well, and the parking lot miscommunications would work themselves out.

“Athletic event attendees and students will have to be flexible,” Allen said. “When it comes to crunch time, a parking space is a parking space. There are 19,000 spaces, and we’re going to use them all eventually.”

Contact reporter Emily Yahr at yahrdbk@gmail.com.