[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Aaron Knight
a) Come on, guys, a bit of exercise can't be that bad. I made the walk back and forth up from the astrodome pits up to the stands where I was taping oh, about a hundred or so give or take another hundred times and IT AIN'T THAT BAD!

When you have to coordinate scouting for teams and you have to have your scouters in the pits and in the stands, it's a nightmare. What should have taken me 5 mins to set up scouting for people, took me the whole day. The walk to the pits and back along with the scouters having to come back was hell on them. The drivers were lucky. They did it only 4 times a day. I did it on average of 4 times per 2 hours.

b) About the venue: the stadium is simply like every other monster sports arena in the world- the concessions are and always will be incredibly overpriced. It's a big place and they have to pay for it somehow, and since ya can't bring in outside food and drink (-officially-), they can charge whatever they want. There'r water fountains......

c) There was plenty of stuff within walking distance (within 0.5 mi) of the stadium where those complaining about b could go to get all the fast food they could possibly want, or groceries and other stuff...

d) About being so split up... what did you expect for an event that was thrown together in 4 months, with an economic downturn (our team could not have afforded the FIRST package deal, so we settled for the Motel 6 about four blocks from the stadium - we were the only team there). There's only so much you can do in that amount of time, and many companies etc make their reservations WAY in advance.

I agree. In Houston you can't have teams together and have fun. That's why it's not as good as Disney.

e) True, Six Flags Astroworld sucks. Maybe they should hold it in Dallas/Fort Worth, where Six Flags Over Texas is (way cooler). Never been to Great Adventure or whatever that supposed great one is.... But I've been to disney, and it ain't all that great......

You mean that the people weren't nice, they had dirty facilities, bad rides, and bad food at WDW? No? Yeah, that's what I though....

f) Houston was a cool and fun venue, all ya needed was to look around. Saw more smiles there than not, so someone was having fun.........

There's a difference between having fun and having an overall great experience, one that I didn't have at Houston.

g) The bathrooms at the basement level of the astrodome aren't exactly designed for public high volume use....the public usually doesn't get to go down to the floor level. They were pretty dingy, but so are most public bathrooms in fifty year old stadiums.....

The guest bathrooms were the same!

I'm holding it against Houston that the Champs were one of the worst. Why? BECAUSE IT WAS THEIR FACILITIES THAT CAUSED THE PROBLEMS. They couldn't handle us as well as Disney. Period. And they charged us more than Disney ever did. I payed for less at Disney and more at Houston. I have the right to complain about the walk if it hinders my ability to do my work. I have the right to complain about the prices since I had to buy the sub-par food. FIRST has gotten my teams hard earned money and Houston didn't turn out anything but excellent. If I pay for over $5000 in registration for an event, I want the best I can get.

What I don't understand is why some people are willing to spend more at worse facilities while the rest of us don't want to. I'm not frugal, but when I am given the cold shoulder at Six Flags and pay outrageous sums of money for food at Reliant, I have the right to want to change venues.

If there is one positive thing about Houston it is this: It makes all of those who wanted to leave Disney want to go back.