Standing Up During Competition...

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by zc923

I do not think FIRST should make a ruling about stand behavior. I feel the members of the FIRST community are mature and gracious enough to consider the best course of action depending on their situation. I only advise that teams and individuals in the future practice discretion.

That's the way it should be. Unfortunately, we've seen too many responses in this thread alone along the lines of, "Well, we stand up and if you don't like it, you can lump it." OK, no one used those exact ungracious words, but you can see the attitude.

Folks, just like anything else going on with the game/event/venue, if we don't fix it ourselves, someone is going to step in to fix it for us. Let's be gracious professionals and curb our own desires and behaviors before FIRST is forced to make a new rule. Providing "standing sections" comes to mind, but there would still be complaints about that - I can see people complaining that either the standing section or the seated section placement is less than optimal.

I have no problem with teams standing to cheer for their introduction. Nor do I have a problem with everyone standing up when something incredibly exciting happens on the field - that happened on Einstein this year, and it happens in sporting events all over the world. You stand up when the quarterback throws the Hail Mary pass. But you don't stand through the whole game. Yes, I know 3 hours is different than 3 minutes, but the concept applies.