[Herodotus]

We're all mature people here in FIRST, and I would imagine if we just worked together we could figure out a way to make sure that teams sat together but that guests and visitors had plenty of seats to choose from among all the stands.

I think it is equally important that teams sit together and that guests have a very easy time of finding seats and feeling welcomed. In some of the larger venues such as at Great Lakes this is not a problem at all, I guarantee you're team will be able to sit together, and well over half of stands will still be open for guests all over the place, amongst the teams. But at the smaller regionals, such as the Western Michigan it can be very hard for everyone to fit in the venue, let alone sit together.

A few ideas I've had have run along the lines of assigned seating. Each team is allocated a certain number of seats, and if they happen to have more the rest of the team has to sit elsewhere, or else work together with the teams around them to come up with a seating solution that works for everyone.

Who knows, I'm sure we could come up with a good idea.

And just because it is a FIRST rule doesn't mean we can't debate it. Yes, we must follow it, but we can still debate it amongst ourselves and maybe try to come up with a rule that might satisfy a larger percentage of people. There is nothing wrong with discussing the rules.