[DanLevin247]

Although I have been in FIRST for 3 years, this was my first year attending Nationals. In 2002, my sophomore year, I was recovering from major back surgery and was not able to attend with my team, my team (247) did not qualify for nationals, but this year, nationals proved themselves to be a dissapointment, I had loads of fun, and my team did great, but the venue for the event was just plain bad.

My team was a part of the Newton division, and it just so happened that Newton was at the front of the astrodome, but the exit to the playing fields was at the back of the stadium, and the Newton field itself was the furthest field from the enterance to Reliant stadium. This walk was even longer for the people without operator badges, such as myself. With a fractured shin, the ramps were a killer. What would a person in a wheelchair do about these ramps? They were quite steep, and a big pain to push or pull a robot and cart up and down.

The prices for food at sports venues are almost always expensive, but 6.50 for Nachos? That can simply be defined as extortion, once I used my prepaid "meal" tab for the day, I didn't have anything to drink, so I was forced to buy myself a 3.75 soda, which is simply outrageous. The bathrooms at reliant were just fine, but the facilities at the astrodome were poor enough to make me hold it for the walk to reliant.

On the first day ( thursday ) the individual fields had no label to designate which field was which, that left people confused, and walking unecessary laps around the field, com'on FIRST, that's just downright forgetful.

There was a lot of space in the pits though, and the floors didn't give me a problem, because our sponsor took a PICO rug out of one of it's offices and brought it for us.

I was dissapointed that there was no real place for teams to come down to field level to cheer their team on, at Newton, there was a little area, but that could accomidate 15 people, max.

For next year, if the Nationals are held in Houston, I would advise that the Astrodome's frieght elevator to take the robots and their accompanying drive teams to the ground level, and to cut down the walk to Reliant, open up those front doors to the stadium itself, and do security there.