[sanddrag]

Overall, I'd say the LA regional was better this year than last. The change of venue was good. While very overpriced, the concessions were open and stocked and there was even a guy in the stands selling stuff.

However, there is still something about the LA regional (and I just can't put my finger on it) that feel just not quite as good as Phoenix or SVR. Some sort of energy is lacking. Or maybe it is a combination of several things.

Positive things for LA this year:

-Mark Leon - his presence almost single handedly made the event awesome
-Woodie Flowers - ditto
-Dave Lavery - yet another ditto on that

Nice job to the planning comittee on getting these all-stars to make it to So Cal this year.

-Big, bright, focused video screen: much better than last year
-Two video screens on the pit side of the curtain, one of the match and another with standings. Again, much better than last year when I believe there was nothing.
-Queing, I don't beleive they ever had to yell for anyone to get on the field and also we never had to wait long.

Still some improvements to be made:

-Announcer was good but needs to give his own accounts of scoring and soforth, not those given to him by the scoring table. On more than a few occassions there was an error on the screen for penalties, wins, etc and but when the announcer said it too (like "red alliance wins" when really blue did), the specators were just even more confused.

-When we arrived Thursday morning it was very unclear and unorganized as to where we should be. Our bus was left sitting in the middle of the street because the event staff did not know to open the gate to let us in. When we got in the gate and were finally directed to the loading ramp, we took all our stuff off the bus and hauled it down the ramp. Then they said everyone could go in. Then they said only 3 people. Then they said we had to haul all our stuff back up this really long really steep ramp. We said no, and then they said oh yeah, you just wait here. But anyhow, teams were left holding heavy, overpiled carts full of equipment on this steel ramp for 45 minutes. Thursday morning arrival needed more organization, everyone was quite confused.

-Entering the arena was very dangerous Thursday morning. The 3 team members (from several teams) to uncrate couldn't take everything in, so some team menmbers carried bags, toolboxes, signs, etc in at 8:30. Well, they had everyone go down the narrow arena isle with steep stairs all the way down to the pit floor. When we got almost to the pit floor (about 10 ft above still) the only way to get down was from a 3' wide slapped-together staircase that seemed very unstable/unsafe. Each stair was not even of equal proportions to the next. Remember, hundreds of people are coming in, all this way. I'm surprised nobody fell flat on their face.

-And that brings me to the issue of stands access. From the stands to the pit floor there were only two of the aformentioned unsafe staircases for access. One on each end of the stands. These staircases were so narrow that two small people stil could not pass. To get to your section in the stands, you had to go up one of these little staircases, then all the way to the upper level of the arena, cut across, and then go back down where you isle was. Most people got so tired from walking up and down that they tried to cut across through any empty rows they could find. With people scattered about the seats, this was unsafe to. Slipping on trash, climbing over specators, etc. Give a couple more wider staircases, and section off two rows (toward the front) just for traffic (no seating)

-Food pricing and quality. While the availability was much better than the Sports arena, $3.50 for a bottle of water and $8.50 for a cheeseburger is just rediculous. Maybe some day it will be realized that they can make the same amount of money at our event by lowering prices and increasing quality, and then people will buy more of it.

-Security. While I was glad that the event staff at the door allowed things like cases of water to be brought in, I wasn't too happy about the fact that it seemed that you could bring anything in. While I never had a specific security related problem, there were no searches or stopping of people going in the door at all. They weren't even really watching. I'm glad nothing happened, but given the lack of any security we should all be surprised that there weren't any incidents.