[DKolberg]

I have major concerns about Atlanta, what to do in the downtime and the issue of security to let kids roam. It also hurts our recruiting efforts for a new team at an additional school. A 3 year commitment seems a mistake.

Spent lots of time in Atlanta and know the site well. Yeah the tournament stuff is fine, but that's not my issue here. My main issue is being responsible for young and older teens (age 13-18) who will want to go off for activities in the downtime (only so many will be in the pit all the time) and the security issues for this location are questionable. Disney was a place that parents and schools thought had an acceptable level of security mixed with many options for fun.

When we were at DIsney groups of 3 or more could go off during the day on their own and we had confidence no harm would come to them - you have to work to get into trouble there. What can they do in downtown Atlanta with similar confidence? I have a feeling kids will be stuck with chaperones all the time. Will it be like regionals where we won't allow them to leave the building? THis is more days and will be worse to manage.

As for recruiting, we are working on adding a team at a new school. The DIsney trip in exchange for all their free hours for 6-8 weeks seemed an attractive offer for newbies to get them hooked. Atlanta does not help me at all in recruiting kids who have never been to a match.

Disney was also a nice thank you to the spouse and kids we coaches/mentors neglect for the season - a convention center is no treat for them. Disney gave us a whole lots of advantages in addition to a place to have the competition.

A Mom I told about this venue responded in horror and said you mean where they had the bombing - what kind of security are they going to have? Very helpful in recruiting. SHe strongly suggested we just stay at regionals for a year and see if Atlanta pans out. This is going to be a hard sell and whether it works out or not we have it for the next 3 years.

If not Disney, then 3 years is too big a commitment, especially for an untested venue. If we are going to settle for a convention center site, I'd rather have rotations - an east, midwest, south and west rotation, at least kids could see a little more of the country. - I agree with the message earlier, that if we are inside a convention center the weather hardly matters.