[Leav]

David,
The pits were outside the arena in a very big and long tent, a small sleeve (like in an airport when boarding a plane) connected the pits to the stadium directly.

The setup was changed because there were 36 teams this year which meant that if they were to be housed inside we would again have to go for the split-pit (funny word) setup where half are inside, close to the floor, and half are on the outskirts of the building (in the peripheral rings).

this causes some problems:
1)there is no 1 pit administration.
2)teams on the outskirts feel neglected and they are not viewed as much as the other teams.

also, the peripheral rings were almost entirely closed off due to renovations.

all in all it was a very good call in my opinion and I hope they go for a similar setup next year....

-Leav