Championship's Atlanta 2006 - The Negative

[Kit Gerhart]

To me, by far the biggest "negative" about the running of the '06 Championship was that the Woody Flowers award was given at a ceremony with almost nobody there, and which many people didn't even know about. The W.F. award is probably the most prestigious award that an individual person can receive in the FIRST community. The winner should be announced between the matches at the closing ceremony where nearly everyone is present.

The other thing that teams run into at Atlanta and most of the regional venues is nonsensical "crowd control." People are actually paid money just to inconvenience team members by telling them they can't go through doors to the pits, etc. Why is that?

In general, Atlanta is a good venue for the Big Event with a nice arena, nearby hotels, etc., but I still miss Epcot, despite the less-than-wonderful setup for watching matches. The atmosphere was fantastic, the food probably better for the money than at the football arenas, and there is all that fun stuff to do on your time off. Maybe FIRST has gotten too big to go back to Disney, but even after going there 7 years, I always looked forward to the Championships at Epcot for the fun atmosphere as well as the competition.