New Lone Star Regional Venue

[TubaMorg]

So as many of you that are attending the Lone Star Regional know, we have a different venue this year. I happened to be in the area yesterday and stopped by to scout it out. Luckily the building was open and I was able to walk around. Here are my observations:

1. Hopefully if you're coming from out of town, you will be staying at hotels near the competition site. Traffic on I-10 between Houston and Katy is a beast!
2. If you are flying in, use Beltway 8 to drive around to I-10 to get around the worse of the traffic.
3. The arena is a nice full sized basketball court area with plenty of seating. Lighting is bright. Seating is pull out bleacher style, but the seats have backs, so no worries. Somewhat smaller than the Reliant venue.
4. Not sure how the pits will be organized. There are fairly large conference rooms adjacent to the arena that might be big enough. Or the pits could be in the actual arena. 1/2 for pits, 1/2 for the field. I just don't know. I asked a couple of people there, but they didn't seem to know either.
5. Free parking! Yay!
6. South entrance is the main entrance
7. Site info from usfirst.org has a map. The directions are accurate, but the pseudo map is a tad misleading. It seems to indicate an off shoot for the Pin Oak exit. After exiting I-10 just stay on the feeder road to FM 1463 and turn right. No sweat. There are no other large buildings in the area to get confused by.
8. I'm not very familiar with the Katy area, but across I-10 from the arena is the Katy Mills area which has TONS of shops for..uh..shopping.


That's about it. Anyone from the Katy area feel free to jump in!