The Crossover

A crossover is the blending or intersection of two different styles that were never meant to meet but end up in the same place at the same time.

Take Mexico and South Korea, for example. On the field, they’re rivals. Two nations, two fan bases, the kind of matchup where you’re supposed to pick a side. But in the streets of Mexico City, their have fans practically fallen in love with each other and it has become a global social media sensation. They traded jerseys, shared chants and celebrated side by side. Rivals aren’t supposed to become friends. But they did.

So, it was no surprise that when their matchup was scheduled for yesterday, the world would be watching. And in LA, we have communities with such deep ties to both countries, naturally there was going to be lots of interest.

But we had a plan for yesterday. A World Cup match at LA Stadium, and months of preparation aimed squarely at moving people to it.

As it turns out, a love story doesn’t always unfold where you expect it to.

While we were laser-focused on the stadium, something else was rising across town. In Koreatown, thousands of fans poured onto our rail lines at key stations like Wilshire/Western and Wilshire Normandie and into the streets to watch the Mexico-South Korea rematch. Down the line, others streamed toward the Wilshire/Fairfax Station to the Fan Zone at the Farmer’s Market (Thank goodness the D Line Extension opened last month!). In East LA, the Mariachi Plaza station activation was a key destination, along with Union Station in Downtown LA because of nearby Casa Mexico located at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. By the day’s end, systemwide rail ridership was up nearly 25 percent. But the surge that blew us away was on the D Line. It was up more than 95 percent!

We were NOT planning for that. And yet the system was ready for it.

This was the part I was most proud of yesterday. You can’t anticipate every moment a community decides to come together. Sometimes the feeling rises on its own and it can be unplanned, unscripted, driven by a viral video and beautifully outside your control. But what you can do is build a foundation strong enough to carry it when it comes.

So, the crossover I witnessed wasn’t only an emotional one of two cultures, one city and a shared reason to celebrate, it was an operational one. That systems we had built and tested for the expected were there to hold the unexpected. Supported by Metro MVP staff, Ambassadors, and security personnel, fans and neighbors were able to connect to their destination without an issue.

I’ve loved watching how these games build community. And in a county as vast and diverse as Los Angeles with our 88 cities, more than 100 unincorporated areas and countless neighborhoods, Metro is a vital part of that connection. We make that crossover possible.

Because the most important signal isn’t always where you planned for the crowd to be. It’s where the community decides to gather--and whether you’re ready to meet them there.