With fans flocking to the Philadelphia Eagles Parade of Champions and celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, people want to know where they can “go.”
For the Pope, there were 3,000 portable toilets.
For this past year’s Philadelphia Marathon, there were 1,000 portable toilets.
But the Super Bowl victory parade is only getting 850 private places to relieve yourself.
So, you may want to hold off on drinking your free beer until you leave the Parkway. The 850 portable toilets Thursday will be spread out across the 5-mile parade route, with most concentrated along the Parkway where the parade will end and the victory celebration will be held, the city said.
Let’s say 1 million people attend the parade — that means there will be one portable toilet for every 1,176 people.
The 850 toilets are only about a quarter of the portable toilets that were available during Pope Francis’ visiting during the World Meeting of Families in September 2015. And, most of those toilets were dispatched to the Parkway area and roadways leading up to the Parkway. They also pale in comparison to the 1,000 toilets A Royal Flush supplied for the Philadelphia Marathon.
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Those large-scale events are planned for months in advance allowing time to get more portable toilets in place. In this case, the toilets had to quickly be put in place so there may not have been as many on hand.
The city contracts out the Philadelphia office of Connecticut-based A Royal Flush for portable toilets for large events. A Royal Flush is supplying around 700 toilets spread out to 18 locations, including Eakins Oval and Marconi Plaza along South Broad Street for Thursday’s parade, company event specialist Rose Ortiz told NBC10.
The cleaning of the toilets on site is not part of the contract, Ortiz said. Once the event ends, the toilets will be removed Thursday night into Friday, Ortiz said.
It is unclear where the other 150 or so toilets will come from.
If you are riding SEPTA, you will have a chance to use the restroom before you go. Keasbey, New Jersey-based Mr. John is supplying more than 100 portable toilets to SEPTA stations inside the city and in the suburbs. Mr. John is even holding a "Super Bowl Scavenger Hunt" through its Facebook page for fans who find squishable porta-potty toys in some of its units.
The city and event organizers didn’t give us an answer to the cost of the toilets nor did they say if any public buildings along the route will be open for restroom use.
Your best bet may be to find a restaurant or bar where you can use the toilet.
