The Galaxy has spent millions of dollars in recent weeks upgrading its on-field product with expensive designated player signings Giovanni Dos Santos and Steven Gerrard.

Now, with potentially thousands of new fans who may have never before set foot in an MLS venue likely to attend the handful of remaining games this season at StubHub Center, the Galaxy needs to show a similar commitment off the field to ensure those potential converts return.

The Galaxy has made some progress in that regard of late. The club finally allowed tailgating this season and expanded the craft beer selection at the Carson stadium to reflect the popularity of the county’s growing brewing industry.

But in some areas the Galaxy is woefully lacking, notably in parking and traffic control before and after games. And it has been that way ever since the stadium opened in 2003.

Not surprisingly, that’s long been the chief gripe of the club’s most lucrative and loyal segment of fans — season-ticket holders — as a former Galaxy official recently observed.

It isn’t hard to see why.

At last week’s opening CONCACAF Champions League game — one attended by only about 12,000 or so fans — it was difficult to even get into stadium parking lots as kickoff approached.

One entrance on Victoria Street reserved for regulars with parking passes was arbitrarily shut down with orange-vested parking-lot attendants frantically and dismissively waving motorists away to other lots for an unknown reason.

The next entrance was manned by a lone parking lot attendant standing behind a line of impenetrable orange cones blocking the entrance. Just 25 yards or so away, parking-lot attendants could be seen issuing drivers tickets to acres of empty lots, but it was tantalizingly impossible to reach.

The third entrance along the road actually had construction workers — at almost 7 p.m., mind you — laying fresh asphalt at the closed entrance.

The only option: to round a corner and seek another far-off entrance on the back side of the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus, then thread through it in search of a nearby lot.

Seriously?

The Galaxy is unable to offer its fans easy access to a parking lot where they have to pay $20 for the privilege of parking?

But wait, there’s more.

As difficult as it is to get into a StubHub Center parking lot, that’s nothing when it comes to actually exiting. Indeed, StubHub is the “Hotel California” of stadiums because it seems that “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

That’s because many stadium parking-lot exits are routinely closed quickly after games. That forces motorists into a bumper-to-bumper line of vehicles heading out the overcrowded main entrance and plodding down Avalon Boulevard, stopping and starting at every poorly coordinated traffic signal.

(Hint: If this ever happens to you, cut through Victoria Park to Main Street to reach the freeways. You will get home far quicker).

Motorists fortunate enough to reach an exit before it closes, however, are forced into one direction or another by a ubiquitous line of orange cones.

You can’t turn left onto Victoria Street, for instance, at least not without pulling an illegal U-turn.

This is a frustrating state of affairs a dozen years after the stadium opened, but one most Galaxy suits don’t have to experience, of course.

It’s what happens when you use inanimate objects for traffic control rather than human beings because, of course, it’s cheaper.

And it speaks volumes about the club’s regard for its paying customers who are the ones actually footing the bill for its big-name stars.

Incidentally, this motorist decided against the unknown organizational chaos that lurked unseen around that corner before the CONCACAF CL game after a long day of work and instead abandoned attempting to get in at all in favor of a cold brew.

Wonder how many other fans have had enough and done the same over the years?

For more local soccer news, read the 100 Percent Soccer blog at www.insidesocal.com/soccer.