Parking for Events at Toyota Center

We recently went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Houston's Toyota Center and discovered that surface lot parking is something to avoid. There's a temptation to pull into one of those lots as you're in line to enter the parking garage for Toyota Center but you'll find that getting out of the lot takes far longer. The reason is that the Toyota Center parking garage hires traffic police to allow the garage to empty rather quickly. My parents made the mistake of parking in the Classified Parking System surface lot on the south east corner of Toyota Center at the corner of Polk St. and Jackson St. The operators of the parking lot only allow one driveway for both incoming and outgoing cars and there is NO traffic direction to allow the cars in the lot to get out. We watched as the entire Toyota Center Parking Garage empty out in about 20 minutes with the help of traffic police. It took my parents 40 minutes to move from their parking spot to the street.