[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

And on the topic of practice, Frank, why the heck do we close the field SO early on practice day? It kills us for a perfectly good Field to be sitting right there, and not being able to use it past 4PM or whatever it is when practice day goes until 8PM. We pay an aweful lot to just stand around and look at an empty field Thursday night.

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I completely agree. I understand it could make a long day for volunteers, but I'd much rather see 3v3 matches going until 7PM than the same handful of teams doing 1v1 matches at 10am. Just shift the schedule back.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I'd even settle for 2 teams at a time, for 4 minutes, from a filler line, to do whatever they want on the field. Doesn't even have to be matches. Most venues cannot accommodate a proper practice field and the late PM when everyone needs it is when everyone is ready for it and crowding it, and the real one is there, but closed.

Aside from volunteer time, a big issue is inspections. Believe it or not, there are usually 1/3 or more of teams that haven't passed inspection yet when the field closes (and sometimes teams that haven't even started yet!). Teams spend the whole first day doing work on their robot that didn't get done before it was bagged up and playing on the field... they just don't prioritize inspections. I honestly worry about giving teams more time on the field so they could put off inspections even later, causing a situation where we couldn't possibly get them all inspected before their first match.