[BandChick]

Basically Jane, what you're not seeing is the "backstage" area. The concourse downstairs stores all the field crates (the far left corner of Elgin's field picture), and the right side of the downstairs concourse holds our practice field. The crates actually go back onto the truck until packing time, so we can get them out of the way.

The pits are about 10x10, and they're small, but not too cramped. Like Roho said, some teams DO keep their crates in their pits for use as tables, or hanging tools, etc. The one thing that does become hectic is the walkway between rows. There's often 10 or 12 kids in each pit, and they start to overflow out into the path. I honestly wonder about it being a fire hazard sometimes...

In the pits: Everyone is organized in numerical order, and the row that's OUTSIDE the regular hockey rink is what we call "veterans' row." That's where the older teams go, because we feel that they need less help and often have more time to travel from an inconvenient location. It's really helpful to have, however, when you want to introduce new folks to FIRST. I can basically send them down that whole row and know they'll get a great feeling for what this is all about.

The black curtain separates the field from the pit, and yes, queuing goes on either side. In from the far side (farthest away from Elgin's pic) and out from the close side. Managing traffic there is ALWAYS a battle, as there's ALSO a stairway in that outflow section.

The hardest part is walking from one side of the arena to the other. If you're in the pit, you have to go upstairs and follow the concourse around to your section of the stands. There's no thruway traffic, unless you are on a drive team, so Elgin's right, the stands become our walkway. We do walk-around our VIPs, they get to go in the out, so that works out okay.

Crowd control is actually a REALLY tough position because we are so tight on space, but everyone seemed to have the flow down this year, which made things a little better. We do have traffic cops EVERYWHERE. At each entrance to the pit to make sure everyone is wearing safety glasses, at the entrance to the field and the exit from the field (the exit being the most important because of that stairwell. In fact, this year, we made it so folks could only go DOWN the stairs into the pits, and not up them into the stands), and all along the field to monitor our "mascot pit" and to make sure we don't have folks jumping the arena wall or on the field when they shouldn't be.

I hope this makes things a little clearer for you, Jane! Also, if you want, I can send you the document of crowd control positions with the map of the arena so you can understand a little more how things are laid out.