Charging for Parking at Regionals.

[sanddrag]

Do they charge for parking at your regional event(s)? If so, how much. At SoCal, it was $8 to park for each day.

If you ask me, charging for parking at a FIRST regional event is just plain wrong. Nobody has money and everybody needs money. First of all, the thing is free to get into. Second, why should a parent have to pay to come see their student competing? That arena is full of people who will one day make the world a better place. The arena is also full of spectators who hope these people will one day make the world a better place. Why must we pay to park to make the world a better place?

[Arefin Bari]

I was very upset about the fact that the teams were told that one person from the team could park in the loading area each day and I was suppose to park the truck there everyday and I wasn't able to, on top of that I had to pay 10 dollars for parking.

[s_forbes]

You would think that parking would be covered by the $5,000 entry fee to get your robot in...

[Jaine Perotti]

Let me ask one question...

Who exactly is it that is charging for parking?

Is it the venue, or are parking profits going directly to FIRST?

If the profits in fact go to the venue... well, this is going to sound harsh, but tough luck. Why should a venue choose not to make us pay for parking, but still make everyone else pay? Having to pay for parking is just a fact of life. I am not saying that it is right, but venues exist to make a profit, and parking space is a commodity needed enough that people are willing to pay for it. That is just how capitalism works.

On the other hand, if FIRST profits from parking, I don't believe this is fair. If they claim to have free admission, charging for parking is going against their word.

-- Jaine

[George A.]

I know in NJ parking is free...in order to make that happen, the NJ planning committe, paid the venue in order to make the parking free...so there are a lot of hands in the pot when it comes to parking...some venues say that people have to pay no matter what, some others might be a little more leanient towards the topic...its all about different places policies I guess.

[sciguy125]

I'm pretty sure that parking is charged by the venue. At Silicon Valley, Thursday and Friday were normal rates. On Saturday, however, they kicked it up to the $10 special event rate (SJSU does this for all special events). At Davis, parking was $6 on Friday and free on Saturday.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

You would think that parking would be covered by the $5,000 entry fee to get your robot in...

Yep... Just another thing to add to the list for the team forum at the end of the year.

10 bucks for parking each day for Boston, NJ was free, Hartford was 10 bucks too (reduced from a god awful $16 original price apparently), Annapolis you had to had a waiver, and even though it was a free event, it wasn't necessarily open to the public cause it was on the Naval base.. kind of going against making it more public accessible, but the location was great so you have to take that into account.

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

FIRST does not make ANY money off parking or anything at the venue. Just to make that clear right off the bat.

I think thats the point. If I knew my money was going to FIRST, I don't think I, or other people, would complain as much.

Originally Posted by BurningQuestion

Let me ask one question...

Who exactly is it that is charging for parking?

On the other hand, if FIRST profits from parking, I don't believe this is fair. If they claim to have free admission, charging for parking is going against their word.

And continuing with my last thought, I guess apparently I'm totally going to have to disagree with Janie on that one. I do see your point, and in a perfect world there would be no charge at all since the paperwork says free event, but if anyone is getting teh money, I think it should be the event and not the venue. Isn't a 5 dollar burger worth $2.00 at my local burger joint making up for that lack of my parking money? It did in NJ where that held true.

I say next year, everyone take a bus in to their events they are going to, or walk in from the street. It'll be our silent boycott against the parking fees!!!

I remember BeanTown Blitz 2004 when we had to pay for parking. I had a big issue paying for parking at an off season event especially when it wasn't going to the event (BTB), but the site (NU). And that was just a mini-comp.

[chaoticprout]

yo sanddrag, the 3 days we drove in, we just said we were competing and we got in for free. o.O

[Ricky Q.]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

I think thats the point. If I knew my money was going to FIRST, I don't think I, or other people, would complain as much.

Yea, but that won't happen. The venues run the parking lots, not FIRST. To get free parking at events, regional planning committees need to get enough money to cover the cost of buying out the lots from the venues for that weekend.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

Yea, but that won't happen. The venues run the parking lots, not FIRST. To get free parking at events, regional planning committees need to get enough money to cover the cost of buying out the lots from the venues for that weekend.

Yeah, I don't understand the whole thought of "You own our arena for the weekend, but we own the parking lot for the arena for the weekend"

In that case Parking Lot does not equal arena.

But since you got the arena, what are you gonna do without a lot?

I think a regional planing committee should stir things up (in a big city event to make the most waves and be logistically feasible) by saying, sure.. we'll pay to use your arena but we're gonna tell everyone not to park at the venue and when you don't make money from parking maybe you'll make Arena include parking lot in your costing.

Seriously, who else uses the parking lot at most events during a FIRST competition other than FIRST competitors, or people who are coming to see that specific event. Sounds like just another way the Venue is trying to squeeze money out of a non-profit organization not taking that non-profit fact into account.

(Note that this is not taking The Championship event and other such places into account where there are multiple venues on one site, and multiple FIRST/non-FIRST activities going on with one shared parking lot)

Also, Ricky.. what do you mean by "Buy out the lots" Do you mean a guess of how many cars are going to use the lots, or the full capacity. Because i have never see a parking garage at a FIRST event completely full with the exception of the one in New Haven in 2002 but that parking lot was small to begin with and was not a parking lot designed just for the venue, but parking for the city of New Haven as well.

Bottom line, it may be of the interest of a regional committee to look into the numbers of cars that they had the last year for parking and just pay that amount for the upcoming year.

I would never pay the whole 10 dollars for every spot in the venue parking lot to make it free for guests. That's not worth it realistically.

[Rombus]

Also one more note:
Not all lots around a venue are controlled by that venue, at Buckeye, most of the parking around the cleveland convocation center is controlled by various city parking companies. i was paying a 1.50 a day to park at a "Slotlot" (Lot where you put your money in a slot by the enterance) across from the C enterance. Not exactly the safest place to park, infact i think someone from Delphi ELITE got there car broken into on the second day, but it was cheep and close.

Your just trying to stur up debate threads arent you sandrag?

[Koko Ed]

If the event is held within the city limits there is usually limited parking space and parking is pretty pricey ( I remember a few years ago going to the New England Aquarium and paying $12 to go to the aquarium and pay $22 for parking). It may not see, fair but often parking lots are seperate businesses from the venues and if they're running a business they could really care less about the spread of the good works of FIRST for the sake of their business.

[KathieK]

Venues contract with parking garage companies. They charge for parking. It is how they make their living. I may not like it but it is legal and I cannot begrudge them their living.

Regional Planning Committees do their best to get reduced rates for parking (it is something I fought long and hard for for the last 6 months). If anyone can find me a sponsor willing to donate enough money to pay for all the cars that parked in Hartford for the four days please let me know ASAP so I can book them for next year. But I think I would rather get us sponsors to donate towards the regional or towards developing and sustaining teams rather than to pay for our parking.

[KTorak]

GLR parking was Free I do understand why a venue would charge parking...considering the number of people over a 3 day period is alot. I'd rather pay $5 to park and get cheaper food :/

If you want to discuss expensive parking though...Most places in Atlanta are $20/night.

[Greg Perkins]

At BAE, it was something like 14 bucks to park in the "center of NH parking garage". This is rediculous, I was only there for like 4 hours and still had to pay an "all-day" fee. I remember back in 04 on saturday they used to have free parking at the garage, but this time it was "event parking...$14". I could see 8 bucks but 14 is overboard.