It’s good news for everybody this Homecoming weekend, at least if you’re going to take the bus. All-day on Saturday, Guelph Transit will be free for everyone to ride regardless of whether you’re going to the game or not. But if you are going to the game, or hosting a party in your own backyard, take care to be on your best behaviour.

First, the transit news, and you read that right. From open to close, riding Guelph’s buses will be free all day Saturday on all routes courtesy of the Central Student Association and the Graduate Students Association. No cash, no tickets, and no passes required!

On top of that, additional service will be provided on three of the main University-centric routes:

• Route 50 U Stone: 1:50 am to 6:45 pm with one bus making a continuous loop. This route leaves University Centre every 20 minutes starting at 11:50 am, with the last bus leaving the University Centre at 6:30 pm.
• Route 57 U Ironwood: noon to 7 pm with one bus making a continuous loop. This route leaves the University Centre every 20 minutes starting at noon, with the last bus leaving the University Centre at 6:40 pm.
• Route 58 U Edinburgh: noon to 7 pm. with one bus making a continuous loop. This route leaves University Centre every 20 minutes starting at noon, with the last bus leaving the University Centre at 6:40 pm.

The City of Guelph would also like you to have a few numbers in case you see trouble.

For cars parked in a no parking zone, on the boulevard or on a lawn, call City Bylaw at 519-837-2529. Someone should be on hand Saturday to answer your call.

If you’ve got a nuisance party, open alcohol in public, public urination or trespassing, then call Guelph Police Service at 519-824-1212.

For people who might end up getting a visit from Guelph Police on Saturday, the CSA would like you to know that both the Police and Bylaw will not be giving out tickets, but instead will be giving out summons. If Police or Bylaw are called for your nuisance party, noise, public urination, underage drinking, or drinking in public, you will be given a court date.

The CSA is recommending that off-campus students register their party. According to the student union, 97.9 per cent of the parties that have been registered with them since 2015 have not been ticketed, so their might be a correlation to a successful party without police intervention and registering an off-campus Homecoming Party at the CSA website.

Registering a party does come with perks. The Off-Campus Living team gives each register party a delivery of “goodies” and the City of Guelph will allow the collection of an extra bag of waste.

Any reduction of stress on the system would likely be appreciated because last year there were 586 calls for police during the 24-hour period around Homecoming, including 12 nuisance party charges, 16 tickets for public urination, nine arrests for intoxication, and 32 noise complaints investigated.

Bylaw was also busy last Homecoming with 345 parking tickets, 89 noise complaints, 71 parking complaints, 16 nuisance party charges, and 8 noise complaint tickets.

Ontario University Athletics (OUA) made the move this year to co-ordinate Homecoming activities across Ontario’s universities to avoid out-of-town rowdies from “pub crawling” from one Homecoming to another every weekend. The University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University are also holding their Homecoming festivities this weekend.

The bottom line: City officials are hoping to avoid this…

…and this…

…during this year’s Homecoming weekend.

The University of Guelph Gryphons will face the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday at 1 pm. Gates will open at 11 am, and tickets are still available; $25 for the general public and $15 for students. Gryphon Park will be open from 11:30 am till 5:30 pm on Johnston Green, and will feature food trucks, giveaways and a DJ.