If you’re heading down to Nationals Park tonight to watch the team face the Mets at 7:10 p.m., you might like to know that you suddenly have a new option in terms of transportation: you can actually just drive and pay $15-$20 to park when you get there.

WTOP first reported this policy change late on Monday. Before today, you had to be a season ticket holder or buy game day parking permits online beforehand in order to park at the stadium. We were told over and over again to take Metro to the game, because there wouldn’t be any parking available. But evidently, officials did such a good job convincing fans that they shouldn’t try to park that no one actually did — meaning there have been plenty of empty spaces in those giant, ugly parking structures in front of the ballpark.

Mark Segraves cites anonymous city officials who are apparently complaining that this new parking regime will undermine their efforts to encourage people to take public transportation. It does seem like we the fans are getting mixed messages about the desperate need for parking alternatives: the remote RFK lot will still operate for the rest of this season, though Nats officials are saying they might do away with it next year. Who would have thought parking at Nationals Park would end up being such a non-issue?

Single game drive-up spaces will reportedly cost $15 in Lot HH, and $20 in Lots W and T. The Nats are also adding valet parking, at a cost of $50, in the old Metro bus garage on M Street.

Tickets to tonight’s game are available here.

Photo by dougvansant