So what did you guys think of the food at your regional?
 

I thought the food in Cleveland was overpriced and underwhelming. There's got to be a better way.

VCU had a concession stand with pizza. Not bad.

Overpriced
 

Like normal the food was overpriced. That's why the TechnoKats always make our lunches and bring them with us. Then we eat them out of our trailer in the parking lot. St. Louis was really strict about not letting in outside food/drink. That was kinda ok, but they even went as far (on Saturday) to say that we couldnt even eat outside food in the parking lot!

Oh well

Re: Overpriced
 

That is just plain evil!
We are a well funded team and I bet the Technokats are well funded as well but there are plenty of teams in FIRST who are struggling to make ends meet and these venues are being allowed to maul them for their nasty overpriced food is just plain wrong!:mad:

We don't pay $4,000 for this nonsense. We are in their all day for three days and the least they could do is let us bring something to eat.

What FIRST should do next year is just buy out the concessions for the duration of the event. In other words, pay the concession company whatever they would have made anyway and get them out so we can bring in our own food.

Please don't discuss ways to smuggle food into the competition anymore.
FIRST makes rules for a reason, if you want to discuss ways around them, please do it elsewhere. Thanks.

(That was kinda ok, but they even went as far (on Saturday) to say that we couldnt even eat outside food in the parking lot!).

This really stinks and I had a feeling they would start doing this. Their food is disgusting and way over priced, what we need is a uniform strike against this outrage and just not buy anything from these crooks. The food consesions is a bonus for the halls and is "not" factored in to the price of the rental.
Our team is on a "very tight" budget and some members could not afford to go to the regional even though they worked just as hard as the other members.
Some times I wonder if FIRST really cares, the poorer teams need help and as far as im concerned I will be bringing food to the regional.
I bet they dont feed the judges and stage help that garbage so where does this food come from!!!!

The food at BAE was the usual overpriced concession food (but not actually bad). The real problem was that the concession stand didn't stay open during the entire event, so our programming team (who missed the lunch break) were unable to buy anything to eat, and also unable to bring in any outside food!

Fortunatly, there were a number of good cheap restaurants withing walking distance (we found an excellent Mexican place that had very good 1 pound burritos for around $4), but that only worked for people who could afford to leave the pits for 30 or 40 minutes.

The food at the team party was very good, provided you liked tortellini, but the hour long lines weren't.

eat on the sidewalk, its public property so they wouldn't be able to stop you.

Cant wait to walk over to mustards in chicago, that place rules!

They would let you eat in the parking lot at St.Louis as long as you weren't too close tothe door. but the prices were way too expensive. We had to make sandwiches too.

The Flip Side
 

Hey Everyone,

I am not going to say the food wasn't over priced at the BAE regional which was held at the Verizon Wireless arena but lets look at it from the perspective of the Arena for a minute. In the paper it said that BAE paid 300,000 to rent the Verizon center for the entire compeition. So let's assume that this is 100,000 per day and that there are 10,000 seats in the Verizon that means that the essentially "sold-out" the areana for 3 days at $10 per person. Consider that when Cher comes there and sells out the Verizon it is at considerably more that $10 per person. The way I see it the operators of these venues have to be loosing big money on FIRST and they need to recoupe it in some manner up goes the food prices. Typically what I do is walk to some place off-site as there are usally food options within walking distance of most venues.

I think we should deal with the food prices and be happy that we can have FIRST competitions in these wonderful arenas!!!

On a closing note, as a 8 year veteran of FIRST I grew up with a regional at New Hampshire College in Manchester, NH (where I live and where FIRST was born). This was an absolutely amazing FIRST venue as anyone who remembers it will surely tell you. In 1999 FIRST got to big for the city of Manchester and was forced to leave...I would like to thank BAE for sponsoring the return of FIRST to New Hampshire, a place where it sure belongs. THANK YOU BAE!!!!

-Justin

Re: So what did you guys think of the food at your regional?
 

Exactly the same at verizon. Plus, they kept on closing it down so we couldn't get drinks at the end of the day when we were the most thirsty.

--Petey

Re: Re: So what did you guys think of the food at your regional?
 

ARGH!
I HATE WHEN THEY DO THAT!!!:mad:

Re: Re: Overpriced
 

Hear hear.
I understand the position of everyone on this but many teams are cash strapped enough as it is. I was talking to the only vermont team--team 885--and they were telling me how they only spent a few hundred bucks on their robot, how no big companies would sponsor them, about how the head of the team was a weaver and how they made their own costumes themselves, about how they made their robot in 10 days because no one would let them use their machine shop unless a team mentor was working at the machine shop itself and the team didn't have any engineer mentors. Their robot broke and there was one piece that would have fixed it, but it cost 100 bucks and they couldn't afford it. Luckily, our team had a spare one and gave it to them, but there are tons of stories like this and while it may be over-dramatizing the issue, the bottom line is that the service as manchvegas was terrible. Overpriced, huge lines because they wouldn't open up the other eating place right down the hall, and they closed it so much that people who didn't rush out right away couldn't get anything to eat and drink.

--Petey

Re: The Flip Side
 

Yes but i doubt if the venue sees more then $10 per person... when tickets are sold for a show at a venue like that its the promoter that gets the money because they already fronted the money to pay for the venue and the promoter/artists/ticket reps set the prices. Then things like ticketmaster have alot to say about the prices and then you have to pay everyone involved like the crew, the band, the management, the other people involved so i doubt if a venue gets paid more then 100.000 when an artists comes there to perform.

The venues aren't really loosing money because how many of them have concerts at 8:30 on a thursday? Obviously if there was something else scheduled at that time then they wouldn't be having the competition and if they were loosing tons of money they wouldn't do it either.

I will admit that the Verizon might make more money for a Cher concert than for FIRST. But they did not have the choice between Cher and FIRST. They had a choice between making some money with FIRST and having the expensive building staying idle for the week end. This is very different from say Disney where the FIRST people probably pushed out more profitable business.

The food at the Verizon was typical arena food. Quality was fair (except fro breakfast were is was poor) and the prices were high. One expects that. People who could leave often did. Unfortunately for a lot of people leaving is not an option. At a basketball game or concert that is no big deal. After all you can easily eat before or after the event. But FIRST is all day. Most people can't go 12 hours without eating. Not and function well. I think that FIRST has to give some serious thought to a solution. For some people $8-$10 is a lot of money for lunch. Especially if you are already paying for a hotel and transportation.

the food was way over priced at the sac regional. Of course that was only the places in cal expo, but all around cal expo there was tons of places. The only problem was that we weren't allowed to leave in our cars during break. But it all worked out. i definatley did not buy the food there though, it was crazy:
hot dog for $4
slushy for $3
fries for $3
they were up there
but the regional was great!! :D
hermione

A proposal
 

It's a little late this year but maybe for Houston if it can get organized enough.
Perhaps we should start a food fund for teams that need the help (and before someone screams "Welfare!" please remember that we're talking gracious professionalism here first and foremost and that basically means helping out those who need the most help). A simple donation of funds from teams, pool it together and arrange it for vouchers to be used at venues so teams can at least afford to feed their kids.
The venues do deserve to make money but not at the expense of driving underfunded teams into bankruptcy. This seems like a happy medium.
Discuss.

Verizon Wireless Arena and the No Outside Food Policy

The average lunch was about $8.50. This although very high, is reasonable that they charge this amount.

However, I don't feel they are in their rights in saying we could not bring outside food in for the following reasons:

1. The concessions were open for a limited amount of time. I believe they were only open from 9am until 2pm. I'm not sure but I tried getting a pepsi about 3 on Friday and found them closed. You can't expect people to go withough food and drink for hours. It's just riddiculous.

2. There was only 1 concession open even during peak times. I went for lunch at 12pm on Saturday and waited in a 30 minute line. How are we expected to make repairs to our robot when we practicly have to plan 50 minues for being able to eat. Some of us have real schedules to adhere with, my breaks were practicly timed. Paying almost $10 for a meal and waiting in a 30 minute line for it is- just riddiculous.

Re: A proposal
 

I agree that this is a great way to help out some of the under-funded teams, but I think that there is a bigger issue at stake here... What needs to be realized here is that a lot (probably most) venues contract out their concessions. The venue has already made their money and the food-service contractor is trying to make back the money they spent on the contract and make a profit. I don't think, however, that it is right to charge teams of high school kids $7.75 for a slice of Domino's pizza and a soda. Having worked in food service for some time, I can tell you that their actual cost for this meal (just for food, not labor, contract, utitlities, etc.) is probably about $.75...if that. The food isn't even good, either.

I am not sure what level of control that FIRST has on this, but it would be nice if something could be done. I, personally, will not be buying anything from the concession stands in Houston.

Well the food at UTC isn't great. And luckily there is a McDonald's and Burger King about a half mile down the street across from the Jai-Alai place(big building that looks like a warehouse. Also they actually raised the price of the food higher than a normal event. But still 4.50 for a thing of chicken fingers is ridiculous. SO if the teams can get transportation to Burger King or McDonald's i would recommend that.

koko ed was totaly right it was 4.25 for a little piece of pizza, which didnt always have cheese or pepperoni tha covered the whle piece. and everything else was to expensive. so we bought subs to bring in and we got caught a few times trying to sneek them in but we very succesful sometimes. one team had brought in their food through the back door whee the loading dock is.

I work at the Verizon....let me tell you what my boss said to me when I was at the competition...

well first he yelled at me for not working and watching instead...lol, oh well....

but, they were going to lower their prices, but because of aramark or something, they couldn't....and they figured people wouldn't buy food because of their high prices...they also didn't expect A THOUSAND GAZILLION kids....they had no idea what was gonna happen....on friday and thursday along they sold like 900 chicken finger baskets...which is more than a hockey game...

the reason they were not open all day Friday is because...the morning help left, while the afternoon help was coming in, getting the stuff ready for dinner...therefore there was no one left in the stands...which is stupid, cause they should of at least kept it open for drinks...or opened a portable stand...i disagree with their actions on that part....

Saturday it was open the whole time....so i think they learned from Friday...

Verizon and the food company in it (Aramark) are completely different companies...and considering i worked at Cher and knowing how FIRST went....Aramark made alot more money with FIRST than Cher, the only difference being, Cher had alcohol at it....
The Verizon on the other hand, made more money with Cher, being that they charge for tickets....

So Verizon lost out, but Aramark made a crap load of money this past weekend....

In fairness, the FIRST event day is a whole lot longer then a hockey game too. To is is probably not surprising that they sold more food. And they had more hours they had to pay people.
But let's hope that the food service company learned something from this year. Next year if they lower the prices a little they may make up the difference in volume. Just think if a thousand fewer people leave for lunch!

St. Louis and food
 

We attended the St. Louis Regional...
The food was not only overpriced but also terrible and completely unhealthy.

It is one thing to come to a minor league hockey game and eat nachos and a dried up hot dog and a coke for $8-10. That is one event for a few hours. To expect high school kids to eat this fare for three solid days is ridiculous..

It is totally unhealthy. We had at least 6 kids sick on Friday because of this "food"

On Saturday I bought healthy (read fresh fruit, yogurt, fresh meat, fresh bread, salad, etc and had it in the parking lot.

It was only later that I found out that we weren't supposed to even eat in the parking lot either...

I am afraid when it comes to the health of the team members
I must respectfully disobey any rule which makes them sick

We would have purchased food of it had been of sufficient quality to keep us healthy and we have several vegetarians on the team who had very little even available to eat at the site..

By the way, the food at the Science Center was EXCELLENT!!!!

thanks

Bob Steele

Your Tax Dollars At Work
 

The food at the Chesapeake regional at the USNA was great and cheap! At the Navy's Drydock restaurant $4.50 got you a big deli sandwich, chips and a 22 oz drink. If you had the time (which I didn't) and wanted to spend more you could go a couple of blocks into town and eat along the waterfront. Can you say "softshell crab sandwich"?

One more reason to look forward to next year's Chesapeake regional! Maybe if they advertise the food it will help them make their 77 team goal.

Pittsburgh had a food court in the arena with a sub shop, burgers, pizza and BBQ. It was cheap and it was good too. I got a 6 inch sub a bag of chips and a coke for 5 bucks. That sure beat the horrible food at SLR

the prices at the New England Regional were way too high.

At Phoenix the prices were alright (relatively) but they were out of Coke by Thursday noon and did not get any till Saturday afternoon and they didn't have much of anything else either.

At LA, it was 3 bucks for a water or soda. :ahh: WATER! - the basis of all life!:mad:

FIRST please don't continue to allow this nonsense!

PS. - However the LA regional was very relaxed about bringing in food. We walked in with like 4 pizzas and 2 cases of water and all this fruit and stuff.

though at the New England Regional the food was decent, but expensive, while at the New York Regional at lunch there was a stand where a guy was selling beef shisk kabobs for 2.00. That's great compared to the 2.50 for a soda at New England.

At J&J, I wish I had my car, but it could have been worse.

My pasta didn't have my chicken fingers in it :(. But hey, it was free, and I was hungry.

I wish they had more food available. I was tired of Sausage and Peppers :).

And I brought PLENTY of bottles of water, so I was satisfied there.

Food at SVR
 

As a rookie team mom, I didn't know what to expect, but did assume our kids could get fed at the arena. Unfortunately, there was only one (or one identical pair of) concession stand(s) at the Silicon Valley Regional in San Jose. The food available there consisted of hot dogs, fries, nachos, and hot pretzels. It was pricey, but that's to be expected: what I did NOT expect was the lack of choices and options for the kids. Three full days of hot dogs and nachos won't do it: many of the kids ended up eating essentially nothing but hot pretzels (many of them are vegetarians or don't eat hot dogs, and the plastic cheese on nachos isn't everyone's cup of tea, so to speak).

Additionally, the concession stand closed at odd hours, meaning there were no beverages available. Some of us team parents ended up walking across campus to buy food in town and calling in to whomever we could reach to come outside and eat something. Unfortunately, many of them were too busy to come out to eat, so they ended up without food.

Three days of a hot pretzel diet isn't very good for anyone. My dream for next year is that there is some consistency among concessioneers across the regionals, and some actual choice among food items. I'd prefer to see healthy alternatives, but hey, anything other than just hot dogs and hot pretzels would be a nice change. I think it's the lack of choices, as much as the cost, that tempts people to sneak in food CARE packages. Just my $.02 ...

I think there are a lot of upset people here. I'd like to add my humble opinions and understandings:

FIRST is not in control of the concessions at events. It's contract-based with the venue. Several other posters with knowledge of how this works for a particular venue have shown us that there can even be more than one company involved with this.

FIRST doesn't make the rule that you can not bring in outside food. That is, again, in the contracting for the venue. FIRST puts it in the rules because they are under contract to do so.

So it is important that FIRST knows you are dissatisfied with the food (or anything else) at a venue (or if you are satisfied!) at your local Team Forum to be held after the season. PLEASE do not address FIRST as if it is their fault, or that they ought to simply change the rule.

Remember we are working together to make all this happen, so compromises must be made. My team brought our own food, and ate it outside the Event Center at SVR. Had we had been hassled by event staff we would have moved a couple meters forward so as to be sure to be on university property, and not Event Center property. I realize this isn't really an option for every venue.

These concerns are very valid, and definitely need to be addressed. Just, when you bring them up, try to keep some perspective. Blame and demand is not conducive to change.

Again, just my humble understanding.

Re: Food at SVR
 

Haha... We snuck alot of food in via tubs. have one person stay outside the front entrance, another person bring an empty tub out, they'd load the food in, and then drop it off at the rear entrance.

when noone was looking, we made a retrieval run for the tub :D

Just sneek in a lot of food. This year at LA, we brought in like 4 pizzas, 3 cases of water, doughnuts, fruit, cheese and sodas. The security people were easily distracted and then we could all just hurry in with our food.

It was cool, when we made it to finals, we passed around some old pizza and called it "victory pizza!"

Its just the movies. Sneek in food often in huge volume!!

The food at Drexel wasn't bad at all. Better than the Subway that was near by and alot better than the food at the RAC.

At west michigan, the food was not as pricey as at midwest, I think, but the quality was absolutely horrible. I bought one of the cookies they were selling, took a bite and threw the rest away! It didnt, in my opinion, even remotely qualify as being edible. After that, we went to burger king.

At midwest, does anyone else know about the central restaurant(I think thats what its called)? Its a really awesome chinese place just down the road from the venue. I think I've been there every year we've gone to the midwest regional, the food there is extremely good.

At J&J, they were selling A pretzel and a small soda for 8 bucks.

I didn't eat lunch at that regional either.

I drank magic water instead.

Mmmm...magic water.