[Kevin Kolodziej]

At Disney, if my memory is correct...there were a couple of setups.

One was three stages (two small, one big) and teams rotated from small to big to make sure everyone got a chance to play on the big stage. There were reserved seating areas that teams had to rotate in and out of during/after their match. It worked well enough.

As Nationals got bigger, it turned into the main pit tent, two tents with fields, and Einstein Stage. Each field tent had two fields and each field was a division (Einstein was a division the first year, but only the first year...I think). I think this was the same setup in 2001 and 2002. Your division field was where you played most of your matches and was where the elims were held. Each division rotated to Einstein for an hour at a time I believe and I think everyone played two matches out there...not consecutively. Divisional seating was tiny... bleachers maybe had 15, 20 rows at max, and were the length of the field plus a bit more. ON ONE SIDE ONLY. I don't know how people watched matches (I was on the field), but that was part of the reason we're no longer at Disney. We got too big.

If the pit hall is anything like the Atlanta pits, I don't see how this will work. Traffic and queuing are going to be a mess (at least queuing in the dome, albeit LONG, was scenic), its going to be noisy, and seating will be nonexistent. Ceiling height could be an issue too (there are some human players with high throwing arcs). Will the pit fields have video production? Will they have a visible screen for teams to watch (drive teams especially?)?

I've never been in the EJD but if it is at least the same floor space as the Georgia Dome, there was plenty of wasted space that could have been put to better use. Not to mention that once FLL and FTC pack up, Einstein was left vacant for the better part of two days and the FTC space became a giant void. FIRST College could use Einstein if FRC fields are being moved for that.

Plus - no robot parade!?! This irks me...not just because we finally earned a spot in the would be parade this year, but because I loved seeing all the mascots, HOF teams, and RCA teams get their moment in the spotlight - the time for the teams that might not have the best robot but represent what FIRST is all about to be seen by all.

At least there's no Houston ramps to deal with....