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Originally Posted by TDav540
High schools being too small, having a bad atmosphere or being bad venues is by and large a complete and total myth.
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And no, it's not going to be as glamorous as Worlds.
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But when you barely have a hundred people in the stands, then it looks much, much worse than any gym. I would rather have a filled crowd, actively engaged in the game and making for an exciting environment rather than an empty stadium and playing in front of nobody.
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High schools will eventually become the norm. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
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In Columbus and Albany, I felt there were very appropriate sized crowds. Of course your not filling the stands for every qualification match, but I did not see that at worlds either. I know some of the teams I talked to enjoyed the fact it was at an "Arena". It made it an event to them, something more memorable than a high school gym. Some teams that go to the districts wont make the state championship. Most teams that go to states wont get to Worlds, but if GA First can make it an memorable event for every competing team for the time being, then why not?
Its inevitable that High School events will be the future, especially if FIRST Grows, but i think we have quite a few years before that's the norm.
The other nice part of "Arena" scale events is you can have the local community tie into the event. The Columbus event was part of a Mini MakerFair, and was used by the local schools to drum up interest in STEM for the grade and middle-schoolers who don't have FTC/FFL Teams yet.
On a purely selfish note: Things like a Loading Dock and proper facilities to accept Semis make load in and load out much easier on the volunteers. I got to experience 2 years of helping load in and load out a off season high school based event back in '10 and '11 when the field fit in the back of a 27' box truck. The one bay loading dock was off the lunch room kitchen. Some of the road cases barely fit and required some expert maneuvering. It sounds silly, but even the little things like this make a big difference when it comes to how smooth an event can go.