[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Maybe I'm just way out of the loop here, but from what I can see, this isn't that critical of a problem that FIRST officials must be involved. I highly empathize with you and not being able to stake those seats: it has happened to my team numerous times, so I do speak with some experience.

However, at competition, especially Nationals, as the day goes on, a team that reserves too many seats may see leakage into their chunk. If they're not actually using those seats, they don't tend to notice. Maybe I just sat by really nice teams, but everyone I saw understood the big team issue.

If you really want to cover this, it could be done at a "mentor meeting" or "team leader meeting" before the event. These things would be highlighted:

You can stake out a maximum of X rows in the stands. We will not monitor it, but that's the polite allowance for your team.

You are responsible for being courteous to those who may need to sit down during competition.

Priority during finals for seats goes to teams competing in finals.

The last item is the one that could be most easily highlighted. I feel that a team in the finals, especially in a huge Championship venue, should have priority over front seats. Our team made it a point to move a few rows back when we weren't selected to make room for teams who were selected to see better.

Good luck with this issue. It is best tackled with a planning committee or a meeting, not by creating a set of rules that will simply be resented and bent.

- Genia