Pits were great, venue was the pits...

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Posted by Joe Ross, Student on team #330, Beach Bot II, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL, NASA ARC.

Posted on 4/27/99 1:45 PM MST


In Reply to: Pits were great, venue was the pits... posted by Joe Johnson on 4/26/99 8:25 PM MST:



I have to agree with everything Joe said. I was on the pit crew and the human player so I didn't have a chance to see any rounds except for the finals, and after sitting in the stands for one round, I gave up and watched the rest from the pits. Not only was it hot outside but I couldn't see a single thing from the stands.

I already told my team that I'm not going to the nationals next year unless things improve significantly. I had much more fun at the Ames regional than I think I could ever have at the nationals.

My suggestion for FIRST would be to get rid of the chairs and have the stands start right behind the place for team viewing. A higher contrast screen would also be better. I couldn't see the screen from the stands, and sometimes that was the only to see the action.

The one thing that I liked was the estimated score that they used in the finals. I hope they continue to use that.

Joe Ross
Team 330

: Hey folks,

: While the complex that Disney constructs to host the Nationals is awesome and the pits in particular were truly fantastic, the venues were aweful.

: To show you how bad it was, I LOVE this sport, yet I could barely bring myself to stand in that merciless sunshine on the chairs squinting my eyes in order to watch the final matches.

: It was HOT!

: It was hard to see!

: It was hard on the knees!

: It was not a spectator friendly sport at all.

: The smallest regional had more people watching the finals than watched the National Finals!

: It was the worst venue of any of the FIRST events I have ever attended.

: In fact, as crazy as I am about this FIRST stuff, I am seriously recommending that our team skip the Nationals next year in favor of another regional if the venue is not significantly improved.

: What do other team think?

: Joe J.