Going to our first championship

[Billfred]

Well, ten people can fit in one fifteen-passenger van (but check with your school district's policy on that; you can't transport students in 15-passenger vans in South Carolina, and you have to be 21 and trained to drive one at USC). A lot of teams drive to the Championship, and parking can be tolerable if you're smart about it. In 2006, I parked in one of the Dome's parking garages the night before for volunteer training, then asked their staff if it were allowable to leave the car there through the Championship. They said it was allowed, but advised me that the garage isn't Fort Knox. I removed my valuables from the car, walked to and from the Dome each day from the Days Inn (with luggage as needed, since I was leaving right after the awards on Einstein), and didn't have a problem. Of course, if you've got some folks with disabilities or other needs that keep them from this sort of arrangement, you'll need other plans. Parking was $10 each entry, so you'd be looking at $30 (plus any hotel parking fees; watch out for them!) to keep using the car over the Championship.

That said, Amtrak tickets from New York to Atlanta are about $222 per person, and plane tickets are about $250--if gas is $3 a gallon, and you get 19 MPG on the highway, a round-trip will run you about $300 for the whole car. Even if you have to take two vehicles, that'd be about $60 a person. You'll be hard-pressed to beat that price, if you've got the drivers for it.