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Unread 20-04-2004, 17:37
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Re: Suggestions about champs?

First I gotta say, Atlanta was great. However.....

Many people are making comments about the venue, especially the long walk between the pits and the stands. This was a big problem in Houston last year that had to be fixed. What amazed me this year was how close the pits and stands actually were. But it seemed FIRST (or the Georgia Dome management and staff) went out of their way to make the trip even longer. Think about it. How many exits were blocked off? Remember the elevators we loaded stuff into the pits through on thursday morning? Why did they need to close them? That alone would have cut the trip in half. There were at least half a dozen exits that would've made the trip much shorter that were blocked off for no apparent reason. Even though they were blocked, many people were using them. They also blocked off the main doors to the Georgia dome and made everybody take the outside escalator down to the lower level to get in. They blocked off another entrance and said it was for FLL only. Again, why do this? Why not have several possible routes to take?

The route the robots and drive team took were the shortest by far. Here's a question, why limit their access for only drive team and robots? Remember in Houston last year, people and robots took the same route all the way until they reached the stadium and then separated. Why couldn't the short route have been open to all. Then before the entrance to the stadium floor have a gate for robots and drive team only, then route all the other people up to the main levels. This alone would have made the trip a ton shorter. Having several routes open would have controlled the crowds better. It's a lot of walking, and not every one of us has a Segway.

I am glad FIRST issued stickers which allowed a team's pit crew to get to the main floor during the finals. That was a necessity, and I'm glad FIRST recognized that. But even for the regular matches, allowing 3 extra people per team to enter won't hurt much, and it will save a ton of walking.