Leaving The Event - Departure Schedules For You And/Or Your Team(s)

[JaneYoung]

Hi all,

Although I was not at the 2015 Championship Event, I have attended others in the recent past. I am aware of how the Closing Ceremonies can run late because of different reasons such as delayed starts.

This thread is created to provide an idea/opportunity regarding how the delay/lateness impacts your departure schedule and/or your team(s). How does it impact?

Looking for information; helpful comments are most welcome.

Jane

[Taylor]

I was a spectator at this event. We left during the semifinals of Einstein - it was late for our children, our van was starting to turn into a pumpkin, and the snail's pace of matches was not inspirational.

I'm aware of a couple teams that left around the same time in order to avoid extra fees from their charter bus companies.

The spectator guide was very vague and not all that helpful.

[Jon Stratis]

While I was not there with my team, I very nearly left early just to find some food. The only thing that kept me there until the end was my desire to both see and show respect for the Chairman's winner. Without that, I would have left at the end of Einstein for dinner, a good two hours earlier than I ended up doing. Having had only a quick bite of lunch before noon (trying to run inspections for teams in the playoffs, extending up until Einstein started), I was rather hungry after all the delays.

I take this as a note to myself to pack a box of snacks next year to help stave off hunger on the last day! Unfortunately this year the snacks I brought were gone Wednesday when myself and some others missed lunch in our rush from the airport to the pits to work load in. What should have been an easy, leisurely lunch was thrown off when the airline moved our flight back by an hour.

[GreyingJay]

Our flight home to Canada was booked for early Monday morning as it was MUCH cheaper than trying to fly out on Sunday. So we had lots of time.

We decided to skip the closing ceremonies since everything was running so late. At first we thought we would stay for chairman`s but we figured we would probably be waiting a long time (and I hear we were right) so we went for a team dinner instead. On Sunday we slept in and did some light sightseeing and shopping, watched movies, had a LAN party, did homework, etc.

[MrForbes]

Saturday was a long day....but we didn't leave St Louis until Monday afternoon, because of the cost of airline tickets.

Many of our team members were burned out by Saturday afternoon, and didn't stick around for the Einstein playoffs or the concert, they went to the hotel and relaxed.

[ElvisMom]

We have a 5-hour drive home. Leaving on Saturday saves us an extra hotel night.

We expected Chairman's to be announced during Einstein. By the time we realized it wouldn't be we had already communicated to team to depart after last match.

Given how things appear to have played out--moving from one end of stadium to the other, additional delays during finale--I'm glad we didn't try to wait until after Chairman's was announced. (And I'm disappointed for having to rationalize this.)

One other point, the 7:15am start time (time when our reps had to be at stadium) was quite early. This further impacted our thought process in planning the end of the day.

[BrendanB]

Consider squeezing in alliance selections on Friday night. I know that makes Friday longer but if it means teams can hit the ground running on Saturday morning with elimination matches starting around 8am or 8:30am we can ensure the divisions are finishing closer to on time. I know Tesla ran long after some delays which pushed back the time to setup for Einstein but it seems like every year the schedule gets blown at Champs regardless.

Hand out awards during the time between the end of alliance selections and the beginning of elimination matches. Its a somewhat wasted time already and typically encompasses lunch break at a normal event.

Let the close of Einstein matches be the end of all official team related awards or be more honest so teams who want to stay can plan ahead with their travel. If teams knew how FIRST was running their Saturday schedule with the small details it is easy to plan around but much harder to re-arrange after the fact with late flights out or needing to hit the road for 24+ bus rides back home which can impact chartered drivers.

[Richard Wallace]

When concessions ran out of food, we made the decision to leave early. During semis four mentors went down to load pit stuff, and when finals ended the rest of the team came down so we could depart immediately. Got to Cracker Barrel twenty minutes north of town by 7:30, back on the road by 9:00, and home by 3:00 am. Reasonable dinner time is important to keep the team happy.

[BethMo]

I left after the first match of the finals because the super-loud music had reached the point of torture for the last hour and I couldn't stand any more. I went to the lobby and watched the last match on a small video screen mounted there, then exited. I was sorry to miss Chairman's award.

[FrankJ]

While I was not there with my team, I very nearly left early just to find some food. The only thing that kept me there until the end was my desire to both see and show respect for the Chairman's winner. ...
As it turns out, you could have gone for a nice dinner after Einstein & taken a nap. Get back in plenty of time to find out who won Chairman's. :]

The blinkie lights in my eyes drove me out of the arena long before Chairman's was announced.

[GreyingJay]

Consider squeezing in alliance selections on Friday night. I know that makes Friday longer but if it means teams can hit the ground running on Saturday morning with elimination matches starting around 8am or 8:30am we can ensure the divisions are finishing closer to on time.

Yes, and it also means that teams that weren't selected can start packing up and maybe even plan to leave for home a little earlier on Saturday knowing that they won't be staying later to pack up their pits and their robot.

[JaneYoung]

Anyone impacted with more financial costs to the team, worry over missing flights, or concerns of that nature?

Jane

[vhcook]

I was there as a solo spectator/volunteer with a four hour drive home. I really wanted to see the chairman's presentation, but by the end of Einstein I was starving, and I was actively disinterested in the announced entertainment for the finale. In addition, I'd been at the venue for nearly 12 hours and needed to ensure I had enough energy left to drive home safely, so I left. By the time Chairman's was actually announced, I was about a third of the way across the state.

[GreyingJay]

Anyone impacted with more financial costs to the team, worry over missing flights, or concerns of that nature?


Our plan to leave Monday morning (taking $200-ish flights) versus leaving on Sunday (which would have meant ($1000+ flights) had to balance cost versus the needs for students to not miss too much school.

The Monday morning flight also necessitated a 4:30am wake-up call. Trying to get a bunch of teenage boys moving at that hour is a... challenge.

In the end, most of us flew, but a small crew decided to drive home starting on Saturday night.

[BethMo]

At my very first Championship (2004 I think?) I had booked a flight back Saturday night, and had to miss some of the last matches when things ran late. Since then, I've always scheduled to stay Saturday night, and advised everyone to expect super-long delays. A few years I've been pleasantly surprised when things run on time, but that's unfortunately not the norm.

[AJCaliciuri]

Our teams was more concerned about getting our students back home in time for School on Monday morning.

We drove down from Canada via a Coach Bus, so it was an 18hr drive back up from St. Louis. We also had to work around the Bus Driver's regulaions on how long he could drive as well as picking up a new driver along the way.

We left around 8:30-9PM or so, so we could grab dinner as a team and get back home for around 6PM, giving our students the chance to get a full night's sleep and get over their FIRST Championship hangover.

[1986titans]

I was there as a solo spectator/volunteer with a four hour drive home. I really wanted to see the chairman's presentation, but by the end of Einstein I was starving, and I was actively disinterested in the announced entertainment for the finale. In addition, I'd been at the venue for nearly 12 hours and needed to ensure I had enough energy left to drive home safely, so I left. By the time Chairman's was actually announced, I was about a third of the way across the state.

Reminds me of 2012. Left after the division stuff was over, made it four hours across Missouri in time to watch Einstein wrap up.

[sanddrag]

I had a 6:45 AM Sunday flight. I was worried about being able to wake up for it. I really wanted to see Chairman's but by about 8:15pm I just couldn't wait any longer.

[prismiko]

Our team stayed for Closing Ceremony and took turns waiting in line (~45 minutes) to buy dinner at the concessions. Since it was important for the kids to not miss Monday class, we had a 6:35 am flight on Sunday. The team had to get up early enough to catch the first Metro (at 4:30) to the airport. What didn't help was that we couldn't check-in online and had to do it at the airport. Luckily, the bridge demolition that was supposed to happen over the weekend was canceled or else it would have added another half hour to the commute on the Metro. On top of it all, there was a baby who cried through the whole flight while people tried to catch some sleep.

[TheOtherGuy]

We decided to leave right after Einstein matches, we had too many hungry folks and I think our patience was wearing thin. We walked to a local sandwich shop for dinner. The small group that returned to the stadium actually got there just as Chairman's was being announced.

I personally did not get the memo about the closing ceremony plan and was very confused when everyone started to leave. I can understand why they separated the finals from the awards, but my preference is to have the awards mixed into the matches so that all winners are recognized for their achievements.

[mott]

Consider squeezing in alliance selections on Friday night.

PLEASE...not this!

While I agree things on Saturday were WAY too long, with the current format of having half the qualification matches on Friday, forcing teams to execute alliance selections on Friday night is unreasonable.

1) This would eliminate the excellent "learning opportunity" that is the evening "pick list discussion".

2) This could disenfranchise the teams' (frequently large) scouting group by having to generate a pick list without spending sufficient time digesting the scouting data.

I would think a better approach would be to shorten the break between division finals and Einstein matches and do away with the arena exodus before the finale.

[dag0620]

PLEASE...not this!

While I agree things on Saturday were WAY too long, with the current format of having half the qualification matches on Friday, forcing teams to execute alliance selections on Friday night is unreasonable.

1) This would eliminate the excellent "learning opportunity" that is the evening "pick list discussion".

2) This could disenfranchise the teams' (frequently large) scouting group by having to generate a pick list without spending sufficient time digesting the scouting data.

I would think a better approach would be to shorten the break between division finals and Einstein matches and do away with the arena exodus before the finale.

To add to this, I also wouldn't want to send a team "packing" so to speak before the last day of the event event happens. That would be a huge hits on students morale for their last night at champs if they don't get into eliminations.