[EricH]

I gotta plug Long Beach Sports Arena. 66 teams, and if event organizers wanted to could probably hold another 6 without too much venue stress. (Volunteer stress, on the other hand... not gonna go there. Ditto for schedule stress.) The first year L.A. was held in Long Beach, the pits were 15x10, for 60 teams. (It was a definite improvement over the 8x8 pits the year before, thanks to being double-booked with a large water tank in the venue...) Access is relatively easy; stadium food is, well, stadium food, but if you make it over to the other side of the conference center next door there's lots of decent food, if a touch on the slow side. Oh, and if you've got lots of extra time there's a few "major" places within a 15-minute drive or so, and a bunch more within an hour.

Now, "best" isn't necessarily "coolest", which is a tie between running a demo at JPL and SVR '99 in the blimp hangar.


What I'd be looking for in a venue: enough space for all teams and spectators, with access and power as appropriate, and enough food for everybody within "easy" access.

As far as the "production quality" question, I think yes... and no. The quality should stay high, especially the higher up the competition you get. But it's a good idea to look around for different providers from time to time, both to help the bottom line and to bring something different in, or to increase the quality if needed. But I'm not sure that keeping the same level just to keep the same level is a good idea.