The Governor’s Cup has earned a reputation as a fun experience for its participants. Getting to and from the games, however, has been less enjoyable.

Traffic snarls and long walks have long been synonymous with the annual youth baseball tournament at Halls Ferry Park. In planning for the 2012 edition that begins Friday night, tournament organizers are hoping new parking guidelines will finally solve a lingering problem.

Among the solutions are using lots at all of the Halls Ferry fields, roping off areas along the main access road to the park to provide a better flow of traffic, and asking teams with large recreational vehicles to park in the Bazinksy Park softball lot.

“It’s basically common sense,” said Vicksburg Warren Athletic Association president Marty Boyd, whose organization runs the Governor’s Cup. “If we can alleviate the parking situation it’ll make everything better. In discussing it, it was something that made sense.”

Fifty teams will compete this weekend in the 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 14-year-olds’ age groups. Games begin at 6 p.m. Friday and continue until the championship games late Sunday afternoon. Odd-numbered age groups will compete next weekend.

With so many people shuffling in and out along a single road to the main complex, parking problems have long plagued the Governor’s Cup. This year, tournament organizers have asked teams in the 8- and 14-year-olds’ age groups to park closer to their “home fields” of Bazinsky Park and Bazinsky Field, respectively. Ticket-takers will be posted at the entrance to those lots or around the hills leading to the main Halls Ferry complex to collect the $5 admission fee.

“We’ll have an improvised gate to get into the complex. You’re going to have to come through a gate area,” Boyd said.

A bigger change to the parking plan concerns the main access road to Halls Ferry Park. In past years the scene resembled a free-for-all as people parked along the side of the road or wherever they could find room. The result was nasty traffic jams between games as drivers attempted to navigate a street that had been cut down to a single lane by the parked cars, as well as the maze of parked and waiting vehicles.

Now, those areas will be roped off to allow for a smoother flow. It will also give emergency vehicles easier access to the park. Boyd said using the other lots to their full potential should make up for the lost spots along the main road.

“We’re not concerned about losing parking spots,” Boyd said.

The revamped parking plan will get a stiff test this year. The 89 teams registered so far — 50 this weekend and 39 next week — are the most since 2009. In addition to more than a half-dozen Warren County teams and others from central Mississippi, squads from Louisiana and Arkansas will participate this weekend.

“That’s one of the biggest turnouts we’ve had in several years,” Boyd said.

The Governor’s Cup is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and its 18th year in Vicksburg.

The tournament originated in Madison as part of a plan by then-Gov. Kirk Fordice to promote physical fitness in the state.

After three lackluster years in Madison, the tournament moved to Vicksburg in 1995. It is no longer sponsored by the state and now serves as the primary fundraiser for the VWAA.