Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Do they charge for parking at your regional event(s)? If so, how much. At SoCal, it was $8 to park for each day.

If you ask me, charging for parking at a FIRST regional event is just plain wrong. Nobody has money and everybody needs money. First of all, the thing is free to get into. Second, why should a parent have to pay to come see their student competing? That arena is full of people who will one day make the world a better place. The arena is also full of spectators who hope these people will one day make the world a better place. Why must we pay to park to make the world a better place?

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

I was very upset about the fact that the teams were told that one person from the team could park in the loading area each day and I was suppose to park the truck there everyday and I wasn't able to, on top of that I had to pay 10 dollars for parking.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

i totally agree why should people that want to come and see us compete have to pay to park. It stops the spread of FIRST because some people don't want to have to pay parking at a free event. I think something needs to be done

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

You would think that parking would be covered by the $5,000 entry fee to get your robot in...

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Parking at SJSU (for the Silicon Valley Regional) was $7 or $8 a day. One person on each team got a parking pass when they arrived on thursday, but everyone else had to pay. I think paying is reasonable, but possibly at a reduced price. You have to realize that, with the number of people attending (not just the spectators) we basically fill up the parking garage. Since SJSU relies on that for some of their income, not getting that is a hard loss, especially for 3 days. I think they should reduce the price, but paying for it is just part of the deal I think. Most of these venues probably don't make very much from hosting the competition.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Let me ask one question...

Who exactly is it that is charging for parking?

Is it the venue, or are parking profits going directly to FIRST?

If the profits in fact go to the venue... well, this is going to sound harsh, but tough luck. Why should a venue choose not to make us pay for parking, but still make everyone else pay? Having to pay for parking is just a fact of life. I am not saying that it is right, but venues exist to make a profit, and parking space is a commodity needed enough that people are willing to pay for it. That is just how capitalism works.

On the other hand, if FIRST profits from parking, I don't believe this is fair. If they claim to have free admission, charging for parking is going against their word.

-- Jaine

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

I know in NJ parking is free...in order to make that happen, the NJ planning committe, paid the venue in order to make the parking free...so there are a lot of hands in the pot when it comes to parking...some venues say that people have to pay no matter what, some others might be a little more leanient towards the topic...its all about different places policies I guess.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

As to the first part of your question, at Silicon Valley the closest parking was in San Jose State's parking garage and the fee was $7 the first two days. However, on Saturday the "special event" signs came out and it jumped to $10.

By your reasoning on the second part, a FIRST entry should be free but it costs $6k. Your college should be free but I suspect it isn't and even if it is that just means someone else is paying for you. I'm obviously smart and good looking too, so I should be rich. :p

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

I'm pretty sure that parking is charged by the venue. At Silicon Valley, Thursday and Friday were normal rates. On Saturday, however, they kicked it up to the $10 special event rate (SJSU does this for all special events). At Davis, parking was $6 on Friday and free on Saturday.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Sanddrag,
Students pay to park their cars at San Jose state, why should we
be any different. FIRST does not charge for tickets at the venue:
the Teams entrance fees, and lots of donations to first, pay for that.
Use of the venue means use of the parking and use of the food services
at the venue. It is not like you are forced to pay the venue food prices
for food if you don't want to. You can always take public transportation
to the venue if you don't want to park a car. You can have water in
bottles and that is all you need to drink. You can have food in your
car outside of the venue and you can scurry there to eat. Try canned
tuna and sardines, its a survivalists mainstay.

They let us eat our food at the table near the entrance door in the
SanJose regional and we were in hog heaven. We did not have to
stand out in the rain to eat. What more could a crazy robotics mentor
want?

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

FIRST does not make ANY money off parking or anything at the venue. Just to make that clear right off the bat.

Parking is something that is negotiated between the venue and FIRST's contract representative. Sometimes it can happen, sometimes it doesn't.

At Wisconsin, our venue wanted something more than we were willing to pay for their parking. Which is why we were unable to give teams and visitors free parking, it is an issue that we know we need to work on for the coming years.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Yep... Just another thing to add to the list for the team forum at the end of the year.

10 bucks for parking each day for Boston, NJ was free, Hartford was 10 bucks too (reduced from a god awful $16 original price apparently), Annapolis you had to had a waiver, and even though it was a free event, it wasn't necessarily open to the public cause it was on the Naval base.. kind of going against making it more public accessible, but the location was great so you have to take that into account.
I think thats the point. If I knew my money was going to FIRST, I don't think I, or other people, would complain as much.

And continuing with my last thought, I guess apparently I'm totally going to have to disagree with Janie on that one. I do see your point, and in a perfect world there would be no charge at all since the paperwork says free event, but if anyone is getting teh money, I think it should be the event and not the venue. Isn't a 5 dollar burger worth $2.00 at my local burger joint making up for that lack of my parking money? It did in NJ where that held true.

I say next year, everyone take a bus in to their events they are going to, or walk in from the street. It'll be our silent boycott against the parking fees!!!

I remember BeanTown Blitz 2004 when we had to pay for parking. I had a big issue paying for parking at an off season event especially when it wasn't going to the event (BTB), but the site (NU). And that was just a mini-comp.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

yo sanddrag, the 3 days we drove in, we just said we were competing and we got in for free. o.O

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

It was $8.

I don't mind paying to park. I realize it isn't FIRST trying to gouge us.

It's just that I remember when it was something like $2 to park at SJSU :rolleyes:

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Yea, but that won't happen. The venues run the parking lots, not FIRST. To get free parking at events, regional planning committees need to get enough money to cover the cost of buying out the lots from the venues for that weekend.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Yeah, I don't understand the whole thought of "You own our arena for the weekend, but we own the parking lot for the arena for the weekend"

In that case Parking Lot does not equal arena.

But since you got the arena, what are you gonna do without a lot?

I think a regional planing committee should stir things up (in a big city event to make the most waves and be logistically feasible) by saying, sure.. we'll pay to use your arena but we're gonna tell everyone not to park at the venue and when you don't make money from parking maybe you'll make Arena include parking lot in your costing.

Seriously, who else uses the parking lot at most events during a FIRST competition other than FIRST competitors, or people who are coming to see that specific event. Sounds like just another way the Venue is trying to squeeze money out of a non-profit organization not taking that non-profit fact into account.

(Note that this is not taking The Championship event and other such places into account where there are multiple venues on one site, and multiple FIRST/non-FIRST activities going on with one shared parking lot)

Also, Ricky.. what do you mean by "Buy out the lots" Do you mean a guess of how many cars are going to use the lots, or the full capacity. Because i have never see a parking garage at a FIRST event completely full with the exception of the one in New Haven in 2002 but that parking lot was small to begin with and was not a parking lot designed just for the venue, but parking for the city of New Haven as well.

Bottom line, it may be of the interest of a regional committee to look into the numbers of cars that they had the last year for parking and just pay that amount for the upcoming year.

I would never pay the whole 10 dollars for every spot in the venue parking lot to make it free for guests. That's not worth it realistically.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Also one more note:
Not all lots around a venue are controlled by that venue, at Buckeye, most of the parking around the cleveland convocation center is controlled by various city parking companies. i was paying a 1.50 a day to park at a "Slotlot" (Lot where you put your money in a slot by the enterance) across from the C enterance. Not exactly the safest place to park, infact i think someone from Delphi ELITE got there car broken into on the second day, but it was cheep and close.

Your just trying to stur up debate threads arent you sandrag?

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

If the event is held within the city limits there is usually limited parking space and parking is pretty pricey ( I remember a few years ago going to the New England Aquarium and paying $12 to go to the aquarium and pay $22 for parking). It may not see, fair but often parking lots are seperate businesses from the venues and if they're running a business they could really care less about the spread of the good works of FIRST for the sake of their business.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Venues contract with parking garage companies. They charge for parking. It is how they make their living. I may not like it but it is legal and I cannot begrudge them their living.

Regional Planning Committees do their best to get reduced rates for parking (it is something I fought long and hard for for the last 6 months). If anyone can find me a sponsor willing to donate enough money to pay for all the cars that parked in Hartford for the four days please let me know ASAP so I can book them for next year. But I think I would rather get us sponsors to donate towards the regional or towards developing and sustaining teams rather than to pay for our parking.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

GLR parking was Free :) I do understand why a venue would charge parking...considering the number of people over a 3 day period is alot. I'd rather pay $5 to park and get cheaper food :/

If you want to discuss expensive parking though...Most places in Atlanta are $20/night.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

At BAE, it was something like 14 bucks to park in the "center of NH parking garage". This is rediculous, I was only there for like 4 hours and still had to pay an "all-day" fee. I remember back in 04 on saturday they used to have free parking at the garage, but this time it was "event parking...$14". I could see 8 bucks but 14 is overboard.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Historically, parking at the Palmetto Regional has been free.

That parking, however, is at the Coliseum parking lots--the busiest lots on campus, particularly for commuting students--making your free parking more of a hunting license. (But hey, it's good practice for college.)

Luckily, USC purchased a bunch of land, some of which will become commuter parking, so hopefully the issue will be reduced in coming years.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Let me see if I got this right. Most of you have your education paid for by the taxpayers. Most have corporate sponsors paying tens of thousands of dollars on your team. You have teachers, engineers, parents, and volunteers donating their time. You have the ChiefDelphi forum, and you use it to complain that the rest of the world owes you even more because you are special.

Meanwhile, as we all have observed, many, if not most of you, have a cell phone, a laptop, and/or an I-Pod to keep you entertained and in touch with all who are special like you.

Never mind that the entrepreneur has their own mouths to feed and taxes and insurance and employees and a mortgage, they owe you a break on the outside chance you will cure cancer or aids or eliminate world hunger.

The webcasts and the websites come streaming for free into your 3.4 MHZ Pentium 4, with dual 100 Gig drives, water cooled, and the obligatory neons- so why should you tolerate the injustice of having to pay to park your Beemer.

Of course, I exaggerate – but some of you need a reality check! You have soldiers your age protecting your freedom so that you can play robot games. Their spouses and parents back home pay to park every day.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

last year at the Mid West regional the parking at the venue was $8. per day but our hotel was $50.for my truck and $50 for our trailer per day :eek: .needless to say we didn't stay at that hotel this year.

Jim

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are assuming that this is something FIRST can negotiate easily. I didn't take a hard look, but in my years in FIRST, I've noticed that free parking is more often then not provided at venues where there is more control over the entire event (i.e. colleges).

There are 2 issues that never seem to go away and can be very hard for a planning committee to deal with... Parking and Food. In for-profit venues both of those are usually contracted out by the venue owner. As part of those contracts they are provided certain things such as exclusivity rights (usually for food) or the automatic right to charge for parking. The regional committees can try to work with them. In the case of NJ, the regional committee managed a deal where they paid for the parking. But that can be depenedant on the area, the number of teams, and the level of sponsorship.

And given that a FIRST event provides no ticket revenue, explain to me how FIRST has a good leg to stand on trying to negotiate things like parking? For that matter, at most events we are dealing with Urban areas. In urban areas, at least on the East Coast, 99% of parking is pay parking.

I know from experience that parking and food are 2 issues that Regional committees always struggle with and the results do not always make everyone happy.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

From my very limited experience of attending two regionals, it appears that parking charges are different everywhere....in Phoenix we got in free on Thrusday, and paid Friday and Saturday (although the school district vans parked free all 3 days). at Davis parking was $6 on school days and free on Saturday.

In the big scheme of things, parking was a very minor issue....and parking at the venues was very affordable compared to when we were sightseeing Wednesday in San Fransisco!

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Between $8 and $12 in parking garages at the Milwaukee Regional. In one $8 lot, if the mistook you for a MATC student, they only charged the $4 student parking rate on Friday and Saturday. In the $12 lot, it was that much per parking space so if you had a bus, it was $24-$36. A truck pulling something like, oh, a large grill was charged $24 as well, but only after the owner of the venue became upset that a team was grilling out in that (rather empty) lot - before that, it was $8 for the bus and truck/grill. :rolleyes:

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Your first point is what our idea was this year, the parking charge our venue wanted was not even close to a good price, so we decided that teams would be ok on their own and find the cheaper parking around the arena. Many of them did and the $12 dollar lot that the venue owned across the street was mostly empty the whole time.

For the whole buy out the lot thing, what I meant is the price that our venue wanted per car to go into their lot was outrageous. And this lot wasn't a garage or anything, and it was almost the perfect size that it would have fit most of the cars and busses coming to this event, which is why we were looking at the whole thing.

It is just something we could not get done in our negotiations this year.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

A FIRST tailgate? WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA!!!

What team was that Katie? I want to hang around with them in Atlanta (especially at lunchtime)! :D

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Elgin,

Many regionals are already negotiating hard with venues to get discounted rental fees and all sorts of breaks. I know for a fact that the LSR regional gets a decent break on the fees for the Reliant Arena. Threatening a venue with a boycott is just plain stupid. They do not, in fact, have to accept FIRST's custom or give us discounts or anything. As for buying out a lot, most venues have a set fee for buying the entire parking lot for your event. No estimating how many people are parking there, cause you could be wrong or anyone off the street could wander in and park at that point. The other option in some places is buying parking tags for every team and distributing them. In which case you still don't have free parking for the public. Both of these options can get very expensive. In the $10K range. So if you happen to have $10K laying around, feel free to donate it to the event of your choice to cover parking. Otherwise just put the extra $100 or so in your team's budget to cover the parking fees and let the regional planning committees worry about the already difficult enough task of pulling off a regional as cost effectively as possible.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Parking at the Davis Regional was $6 for Thursday and Friday however for Saturday they allowed the lot to be free, which was very kind of them to do so.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Quit complaining. It's parking. It's a known cost. It always will be. That's how parking people make their money - on big events. Venues don't have to give FIRST events any special treatment and if they do it's normally because the planning committees worked some magic. I can understand the frustration with some outrageous parking costs, but unfortunately that is how it will be in many cases. Perhaps some extra fundraising can be done to cover it.

There will always be rising costs, there will always be growing pains. I'm not necessarily saying "nothing" can be done and just deal with it, but go see what you can do about it instead of complaining that FIRST isn't doing enough... about parking of all things. From looking at old papers, I believe that the cost of FIRST registration fees has risen about $2k in the last 15yrs...That's pretty good if you ask me.

Boilermaker had free parking in a garage 100yds from the venue. Purdue was nice enough to let us reserve it and a surface lot for bus/trailers free of charge for the 3 days. Most events don't have this luxury. Try to tell the RPCs that they should pay the cost of parking for every team. As a committee member, I would rather spend money on the regional activities and details, as well as scholarships for students, rather than parking costs. Many regionals don't have money to splurge on extra things..

Come up with ideas that are win-win!! Suggest these ideas at team forums at the end of the season. Find out who your regional planning committee is and make suggestions! Those who say something "must be done", well.... what do you suggest? And I mean, besides saying "FIRST or the committees should just pay for it".

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

at boston:
parking was 8 dollars for thursday, and 10 dollars for friday and saturday (each), it was a BU lot, its also open for eceryone to park in and is very big. the amount everyone paid was significantly less since on average BU charges from 20-30 dollars to park in their lots.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Had I known about a parking fee, I may not have been as upset as I was at Davis. We were traveling in 3 vans from our hotel, and at $18.00 a day, we were unprepared. I have never had a problem with people making money, but I would like to have seen that at least the teams who are participating get a parking pass (or 2 or 3) for each team.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

There was no cost for parking at SBPLI. As a volunteer, I don't think I'd have liked the idea of having to pay to park, but I probably would have anyway. Some of these numbers people are mentioning are quite high, if you're a poor college student and volunteering, $20-$30 on parking might prohibit you from attending.

Still, I wouldn't blame FIRST for it.. I am sure the people who plan the stuff are trying to get the most accessible venues they can. And free parking because you *might* make the world a better place? Silly.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

The absolute worst venue I have been to for parking was the Pitt Peterson Center for the Pittsburgh Regional. The venue is directly across the street from one of the leading hospitals in the nation however only 3 or so handicapped parking spots were available. Nearby parking "garages" were available if you could walk to the venue, however one could easily expect the daily charge to exceed $20.

I have also attended the Mid Atlantic regional at two different venues, the Annapolis Regional, and the Finger Lakes Regional - never being charged at any of them.

Back in the days of Disney - if you came in during the early morning as the pits opened, they allowed you to park for FREE @ DISNEY.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

The Peachtree Regional is held at the Gwinnett Civic & Cultural Center, NE of Atlanta and does not charge to park a vehicle. That includes other events that are held there also, including hockey.

There will of course be parking fees around the Georgia Dome for the Championship event but you are downtown in a large city so of course there will be a fee. First can't tell all of the parking lot operators in a downtown area to not charge or give a reduced rate.

Dave

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Come join us at Portland. There are a bunch of hotels only a few blocks from the hotel, and it is a nice neighborhood. We park for free at the hotel and walk to the tournament venue (where you can park for the day for less than $10 -- or park for 30 minutes for free for loading and unloading people and gear).

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Denver does not sound too bad at $5.00 per day. ColoradoFIRST has done a good job of publicizing the parking fee. The regional is held in at the Denver University hockey arena and parking in and around the campus is scarce. The regional competition is held during spring break, otherwise the parking would be full of students.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

That's actually a surprise to me. On the east coast, I don't know of any hotel in any major city that does charge for parking, even for guests.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

Arizona was $6 a day.

I don't really mind paying for parking. It's a cost of driving. But...

The multi million dollar basketball player, football player, singer, entertainer, etc. does NOT pay parking where they perform. Our teams are the performers that draw the crowd that pays for parking. It kind of bugs me that we are not offered the same courtesy.

The first year we went to the AZ regional, I did not relize they would charge for parking and all I had was my $5 for lunch. Bummer.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

The regional planning committee negotiated for this price break.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

[quote=sanddrag] Second, why should a parent have to pay to come see their student competing?

If you kinda think about someones parents always has to pay to see their child compete, they may not charge parking at high school games but parents still have to pay 4 or 5 dollars to see their son or daughter play basketball or football.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

At the Chesapeake, parking was free to all at the Stadium with shuttle buses running to the Naval Academy.

However the Regional Planning Committee picked up the tab. The parking was not free. We just did not pass along the costs to you. It is already a difficult enough place to access.

Parking at the Stadium normally costs $5/car.

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

PArking at FLR was free.
It's just not anywhere near the building (typical RIT) and don't get me started on the rent a cops! :mad:

Re: Charging for Parking at Regionals.
 

It is not practical to give some people a free pass for parking at FIRST event, and I think it would be impossible to do fairly.

Most importantly almost everyone who is there is some kind of supporter of FIRST. Let's be honest, FIRST audiences aren't really general audiences. I am sure they are overwhelmingly comprised of someone who knows someone on a team.

Who would get free parking? The students themselves? Volunteers at the event? What about parents who bring their students? What about students whose parents/family/mentors bring more than one car? What about someone volunteering at another event and attending another to see how it is run, maybe improve the other, or just to have fun.

Also millionaire performers are producing millions for the event. As much as you might be gouged by parking costs, it's not to the tune of millions of dollars for all attendees across the entire FIRST event.

If some people have to pay for parking and others do not at a FIRST event, imagine what kind of message that sends. They would be treated like just any random person going to a football game or a concert - their price to go to an event is purely an entertainment cost. I'm sure if you asked most of the people in the stands how to categorize their parking fee, it would not be purely entertainment. These people are supporting you in a very real way; not in the impersonal mass-produced way people "support" celebrities at large venues.

This is not to say the people in the stands are not having as much fun as anonymous concert-goers, they probably care about it more since they know you; but I think it is foolish to take for granted the very real relationship everyone performing at a FIRST event has with the audience and compare it to the mostly meaningless relationship someone has with a celebrity they're paying to watch perform.