Bringing Food into Competition Venues

[Josh Murphy]

I have never seen anyone get in trouble for this. But you have to realize that most of these venues are used for sporting events in which they make profit off of concessions and ticket sales. FIRST events are free to anyone that wants to watch them right? I think so. See since the events are free to watch they aren't making as much profit as they normally would so they depend on concessions to help cover the cost. Yeah FIRST pays them to have the event there but they probably still make more money off of the sporting events. Do I like it ...NO but I do follow it because it is in the best interest of my team.

[JaneYoung]

I had mentioned that we have opportunities following competition season to voice our concerns/feedback. I didn't say how or where.
One of the ways is the survey each team receives. Our lead teacher fills that out and submits it with our feedback.

Here is an example of a thread asking for feedback for Lone Star Regional:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=46180

There were also the different team forums in which to partipate.
We are very lucky here with our regional leadership. They are attentive and listen to our concerns. I have always received a response to any questions or concerns I have had.

I'm learning a lot from these threads and one is that maybe I have taken our FIRST staff and volunteers here at the Lone Star Regional for granted. I'll try not to do that in the future.

Jane

[Pirate_Nelly354]

Food at competitions are very expensive. I remember at the Championship event a slice of piza was $5. That's a lot. I've never bought any food at competitions. At the regionals we went out to get food. And at the championship event I brought little boxes of cereal with me or I waited until we got back.

But I do understand why prices are high. Sporting events or whatever are held at those place and they do need to make money. More people, more money. Hungry people don't care about prices sometimes *shrugs*

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I want to start out with saying that I did skip one whole page of this thread. Now, with that out of the way, I would like to voice my opinion/stories. Heh...

I openly disobey this rule and it's the only rule that I openly disobey. I cannot stand how much the food costs at regionals (and movie theatres). Our team gets lunch delivered to our bus at competitions. At Midwest it was Dominick's and at West Michigan this year we hired a church to cook our food and we paid them well. That was the best idea I had ever heard when someone brought it up at a planning meeting. Why not give our money to groups somewhat like us? First we started with a sorority at GVSU but they weren't interested, so we contacted a church from Allendale and they were gung-ho about it. Turns out one of the church members was a family member of one of 107's team members. Good. Anyways, we've only gotten into trouble once with having food in the parking lot of an event and that was in StL in 2003 or 2004. We just had to move our bus or food off of the arena property which was only about 3 feet away anyways. Just past the little itty-bitty string fence. But sometimes we have to take food into the arena to the students and mentors that don't have a chance to get out to the bus. We've even brought food into volunteers that were working from our team...

Now, I know rules should be followed all of the time but sometimes there's just no way to do it. We used to give out $10 to each student every day. That got rather expensive rather fast. Especially with 25-30 students. You're talking close to $1,000 for food. Why pay the arena bookubucks when we can get it catered to our bus with a tax-exempt discount and a multiple day discount from Dominicks and such? Now I'm not saying that every person should do this, but it's a good way to cut down on expenses.

I support paying a local charity to cook for you.

[KenWittlief]

so heres what we have to do.

Every team create a mascot - every mascot is a bird, a big bird, seven feet tall, with a giant head.

what the vendors at the events wont know is those giant bird heads will be filled with M&Ms, that dispense out the beak

and its 'traditional' for the mascot to feed the students and mentors (like real birds do)....

:^)

[LordTalps]

I've been on both sides. I'm in favor of simply going out to get food, because it gives your mind a break from constantly working on the robot, and you'll enjoy your food/drink more. I've also brought food in for our mentors (was actually starbucks) who'd been working around the clock on our robot, and needed their fixes. I'm not terribly worried about the idea of breaking this rule, though I'm less happy about it than simply going out for food.

That stadium prices are expensive isn't really an excuse to bring food in though. It's expensive, but as far as I've seen and heard you're always able to leave the stadium and go get food/drink elsewhere. You just can't do it and work on the bot at the same time. Our lunches provided by FIRST/stadium (whoever did it) sufficed as our drinks for inside the stadium.

[Not2B]

Venue food stinks.

But...
Imagine running a restaurant.
But you are only open 30 times a year. You have to pay for all the equipment by spreading the cost across 30 days instead of 365 days. You don't buy THAT much food, so no bulk discounts. If you make/order too much - you lose it, no carrying it over till tomorrow.

I'd never want to run a food stand at an arena - just doesn't make sense unless you can do something to even out the cost - I.E being a monopoly.

Would it be better to have NO food served at an event, and be allowed to bring food in??? Maybe at some events - I know it would inhale audible at Great Lakes because there is no easy to walk to food places. Besides, the outside public would be sad if they couldn't get food right there.

I still don't like it... But it makes some sense to me.

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Not2B

Venue food stinks.

But...
Imagine running a restaurant.
But you are only open 30 times a year. You have to pay for all the equipment by spreading the cost across 30 days instead of 365 days. You don't buy THAT much food, so no bulk discounts. If you make/order too much - you lose it, no carrying it over till tomorrow.

catering business. You have a central location where the food is prepaired, and you bring it to the event, precooked and ready to serve.

You dont serve food at only one place, once a week - you also provide food for parties, weddings, promotional events... and you provide food to all the sporting events in your area, not just one facility.

[sanddrag]

The problem with leaving the arena is that some events are located in quite poor neighborhoods where parents would never want their children walking the streets.

[LordTalps]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The problem with leaving the arena is that some events are located in quite poor neighborhoods where parents would never want their children walking the streets.

Yeah, will give you that actually. We were in Richmond, Virginia (capital) which is fairly urban, and not the best of reputations for crime and whatnot. At one point me and my friend mildly felt followed by a guy, went into starbucks to be sure he left us alone (had asked us for money originally)... But yeah, that's an issue too :\

[ChuckDickerson]

Another point to consider is trash. Food wrappers and containers generate a lot of it and the venues have to dispose of it and this cost the venue money. Part of the cost of renting a venue and the food they sell goes to cover this cost. If everyone brought in food from outside then they are also bringing in trash from outside. The venue would have to make up the cost of cleaning up and disposing of this trash somehow. Granted we are all responsible individuals in FIRST and would never think of leaving any trash in the isles or halls and always dispose of our trash in proper collection receptacles but this is often NOT the case at other events. When I was in high school one of the ways we raised money for different organizations was to clean up the trash left in the stadium after an even. Students = Free Labor. When we all leave a FIRST event there is probably a mountain of trash that must be collected and disposed of somehow. The price you pay for that event food also pays to get rid of the cup, the wrapper, the boxes, and the half of the piece of pizza you could stomach. I agree that the food at events tastes less than ideal and is expensive and I don't have a solution to that but I think there are lots of other issues like trash to consider. Since the events are free the event has to cover their costs somehow. Many other events have the same restrictions on bringing in outside food and drink for the same reasons. I've been to lots of events like NASCAR races where you can bring in a limited amount of food and drink but I have also always had to pay a hefty premium for the tickets to the event. If we all want to start paying for tickets to a FIRST event then I think we have more room to negotiate about the food at the events. Until then I don't see things changing all that much. As far as I know, FIRST doesn't have much control over the food at the events and certainly isn't trying to make a big profit selling junk food to a bunch crazy robot building people. If it is a big problem get a cooler or two, stock them with drinks and sandwich stuff, and keep then in a team vehicle in the parking lot. At lunch eat there and take your trash with you. If you have a medical need to eat at a certain time or eat special food then I'm sure that FIRST and the venue can make special arrangements.

That's my $02.

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

Another point to consider is trash. Food wrappers and containers generate a lot of it and the venues have to dispose of it and this cost the venue money. Part of the cost of renting a venue and the food they sell goes to cover this cost. If everyone brought in food from outside then they are also bringing in trash from outside. The venue would have to make up the cost of cleaning up and disposing of this trash somehow. Granted we are all responsible individuals in FIRST and would never think of leaving any trash in the isles or halls and always dispose of our trash in proper collection receptacles but this is often NOT the case at other events. When I was in high school one of the ways we raised money for different organizations was to clean up the trash left in the stadium after an even. Students = Free Labor. When we all leave a FIRST event there is probably a mountain of trash that must be collected and disposed of somehow. The price you pay for that event food also pays to get rid of the cup, the wrapper, the boxes, and the half of the piece of pizza you could stomach. I agree that the food at events tastes less than ideal and is expensive and I don't have a solution to that but I think there are lots of other issues like trash to consider. Since the events are free the event has to cover their costs somehow. Many other events have the same restrictions on bringing in outside food and drink for the same reasons. I've been to lots of events like NASCAR races where you can bring in a limited amount of food and drink but I have also always had to pay a hefty premium for the tickets to the event. If we all want to start paying for tickets to a FIRST event then I think we have more room to negotiate about the food at the events. Until then I don't see things changing all that much. As far as I know, FIRST doesn't have much control over the food at the events and certainly isn't trying to make a big profit selling junk food to a bunch crazy robot building people. If it is a big problem get a cooler or two, stock them with drinks and sandwich stuff, and keep then in a team vehicle in the parking lot. At lunch eat there and take your trash with you. If you have a medical need to eat at a certain time or eat special food then I'm sure that FIRST and the venue can make special arrangements.

That's my $02.

The venue doesn't directly profit off of the food sales so there is no direct connection. The venues sell the right to sell food to the highest bidders or the places that are there already. In the case of the latter the pay some sort of rent or whatever you wanna call it. The venue has general staff that deals with things like trash. Also I don't know if you noticed but at most venues they wait for the last day to clean up. I remember in the georgia dome if you were first in in the morning to get seats where another team sat the previous day there is trash there.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The problem with leaving the arena is that some events are located in quite poor neighborhoods where parents would never want their children walking the streets.

As much as this can present a problem, I'd say that everyone should learn how to deal with situations like this in real life. Parts of my own town are places I'd never want to go at night. But in other parts, I'd feel fine leaving everything unlocked.

It's like the Championships in Atlanta every year and the homeless/hobos/panhandlers who press you every five seconds for money. If you've never been in situations like that before, you may panic. Once if you've learned how to deal with traveling through innercity places, they are no longer a major problem. And that's a nice life skill to have, especially at many Regionals and the Championships.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

I remember in the georgia dome if you were first in in the morning to get seats where another team sat the previous day there is trash there.

/Off Topic
Team 648 picks up their trash and the teams around them that left theirs. It's actually kind of cool. Missing a button you don't have yet? Search the floors. Want a Wildstang pen? Look for where Wildstang sat. I still have a pair of safety glasses from a team that was in Chicago, 74 I think. I have a BEAST headband that I found and all kinds of stuff. \Off Topic

Some of the venues are located in bad places I guess. But some are just located where it's almost impossible to find food. For instance, in StL if you want to walk to get food, it's about 1.5 miles to the closest Jack-in-the-Box. In Midwest, I don't remember anything around the UIC Pavilion. And WMR, I'm pretty sure the school was located in the middle of nowhere so it would take a long time to find food. But correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't pay much attention.

[StephLee]

Pittsburgh does have pretty good food, with about four or five different restaraunts in the food court. You could also pre-order what you wanted from each place, and you got a slip of paper saying what you ordered and that you already paid for it, which really helped make the lines move faster.

At Chesapeake, the food is pretty expensive (I remember paying $2.50 for a can of soda in 2005), but they do offer preordered boxed lunches. The boxed lunches honestly aren't that fantastic, but they're not bad and do have enough in there.

In Atlanta this year, our team typically ate at the CNN center or somewhere else outside of the venue. I only remember eating in the pits one day, and then myself and the rest of the drive team ate pizza from Papa John's that a mentor went and bought for us when time was running short.

Honestly, I'm a bad person to ask about this; at least one day out of each competition I'm too nervous to eat anything (usually Saturday) and one other day I'm probably too busy to eat. I guess that comes into it when you consider that if the food was more easily accessable or if we were allowed to bring food in, the team members who are busy the entire day would be more likely not to pass out from dehydration.