OP, one thing that might make you feel a little better about this ongoing problem is that word does eventually get around about the teams that save seats/are obnoxious about it.
Though it feels like you lost in those situations, the teams that were being rude are the ones losing in the long run.
The way our community works, no one is going to post on CD that a certain team was hogging the stands, but I can guarantee that this is something that people talk about at competitions. There have been countless instances where I've had a bad experience in the stands and mentioned it to the other volunteers I saw that day... "Team __ was quite rude in the stands" or "Team ___ had one kid always running around the pits and wouldn't listen." Other times, I might talk to my own team about how I was treated badly.
You never know when things like that make their way to the ears of the judges. In a few select instances, I have walked straight up to a judge and told them about my experience interacting with a team.
If common courtesy doesn't convince you to share seats, maybe the possibility of losing some points will.
I would also like to touch upon some of the very passionate defense of seat saving that some have made on this thread. I get that teams want to sit together, I totally understand that scouts need to sit closer to the field.
I understand where you are coming from and that you really, really care about your seats because they're important for team performance, I used to have the same mindset when I was a student getting scouting data from my team...
BUT YOU'RE STILL BEING RUDE. Just because I can understand the motivation, doesn't mean I tolerate the behavior. I am most disappointed in the top tier teams who justify bad behavior with the competitive advantages that it provides them.
I am using this quote as an example to highlight the perceived importance of scouting to a team and (from my understanding of this post) this individual's higher value on scouting than allowing a volunteer or spectator to sit wherever they want. Not at all implying that 1678 has shown bad stands behavior, just that this post does a great job highlighting what I think is the wrong mindset to take regarding seating. I do not think the OP was at all selfish in his search for a good seat after volunteering at the event.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Citrus Dad
Yes, you did.
3) So you believe that scouting systems are entirely superfluous to the FRC experience? In other words the only important people on FRC teams are the pit crew and the drive team and everyone else be $@#$@#$@#$@#? The reality is that all of the successful teams have complex scouting systems that require close proximity. Why you would want to end technological innovation and the associated educational benefits that it creates simply because you want to be able to sit where ever you want sounds incredibly selfish.
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Lastly, a huge thank you to the many teams who have, over the years, offered me a seat in "their reserved section." Many of the instances of kindness are not highlighted--we generally tend to focus on the negatives (not trying to take away from the importance of this problem, just trying to draw some attention to the positive experiences I've had in the stands at FIRST events too).