2011 Lesson Learned: The Negative

[elliver]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

It would be nice to have a designated queuing lane through the pit(s), so that robots coming from and going to the field would have a clear (or almost-always clear) lane of travel to/from the field and their pit aisle. I think this would be safer, too.

We couldn't watch our division finals because of a lack of room on the bleachers. It would be great if more bleacher space could be had next year.

As usual, the speeches/presentations during the finals were too many and too long. I had three family members who were completely unfamiliar with FIRST come for the entire day Saturday. One of them actually fell asleep DURING THE FINALS because of the speeches, only to wake somewhat disoriented for the next game. For an organization that seeks to use the sports model to make innovation and design exciting (and thus inspiring), they really don't seem to get it when it comes to the finals and speeches. Can you imagine trying to get someone into basketball, and then stopping the action after every shot (or shot clock) during the fourth quarter of the finals so that people could give a speech?

So to reiterate: Overall, good job. But Dean and friends, you have some homework!

I definitely agree on space between the pits and more bleachers.
However, I think there would be no way to solve your problem with the speeches; during finals the teams still have to have enough time to get ready for their next matches, so if there weren't any speeches then we'd have been staring at paper airplanes and people working on robots across the stadium for five minutes anyway.

I did feel like there should have been better seating for the concert. One person suggested having it on the longer side of the stadium so there would be more space on the lower levels. Perhaps just sticking more teams in the standing area would have helped as well, since it seemed a little empty in places.