[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Let's leave aside names here (and besides, Libby is a bad example to use since she's usually presenting the Imagery Award). The number of VIPs that get the primo seats is not so large in number that moving them out would help much--you might get one more team on the ground, but which team gets that rub? (Chairman's is already spoken for, and the 12 Einstein teams won't fit.)

When I watched Einstein 2012 from the tornado seats, there was plenty of room for more teams to get in. (Not that you wanted to be that high up that day, but that's different.) For the fiery hoops you'd have to jump through to give those seats to students, I'd just rather show some appreciation for those that make FIRST able to do what it does at the price that it does.

IndySam's point is that the Einstein field faces the VIP boxes up top - in Atlanta, they were on the 'long side' of the arena rather than the 'short side' in STL.

I'm not trying to say that this layout is ideal - I'm just echoing Pat's point that FIRST is going to arrange the field so that VIPs have the opportunity to see the finals and major award ceremonies that are held on that stage. It is a fact of life that without their support, we would not be able to have FIRST events on the scale that we do currently. If VIPs and sponsors don't enjoy the show, they might not support us next year. And then where would we be?!

I wasn't saying it's right or wrong, I'm saying it's realistic.