So what did you guys think of the food at your regional?

[Alfred Thompson]

I will admit that the Verizon might make more money for a Cher concert than for FIRST. But they did not have the choice between Cher and FIRST. They had a choice between making some money with FIRST and having the expensive building staying idle for the week end. This is very different from say Disney where the FIRST people probably pushed out more profitable business.

The food at the Verizon was typical arena food. Quality was fair (except fro breakfast were is was poor) and the prices were high. One expects that. People who could leave often did. Unfortunately for a lot of people leaving is not an option. At a basketball game or concert that is no big deal. After all you can easily eat before or after the event. But FIRST is all day. Most people can't go 12 hours without eating. Not and function well. I think that FIRST has to give some serious thought to a solution. For some people $8-$10 is a lot of money for lunch. Especially if you are already paying for a hotel and transportation.

[Hermione692]

the food was way over priced at the sac regional. Of course that was only the places in cal expo, but all around cal expo there was tons of places. The only problem was that we weren't allowed to leave in our cars during break. But it all worked out. i definatley did not buy the food there though, it was crazy:
hot dog for $4
slushy for $3
fries for $3
they were up there
but the regional was great!!
hermione

[Koko Ed]

It's a little late this year but maybe for Houston if it can get organized enough.
Perhaps we should start a food fund for teams that need the help (and before someone screams "Welfare!" please remember that we're talking gracious professionalism here first and foremost and that basically means helping out those who need the most help). A simple donation of funds from teams, pool it together and arrange it for vouchers to be used at venues so teams can at least afford to feed their kids.
The venues do deserve to make money but not at the expense of driving underfunded teams into bankruptcy. This seems like a happy medium.
Discuss.

[MikeDubreuil]

Verizon Wireless Arena and the No Outside Food Policy

The average lunch was about $8.50. This although very high, is reasonable that they charge this amount.

However, I don't feel they are in their rights in saying we could not bring outside food in for the following reasons:

1. The concessions were open for a limited amount of time. I believe they were only open from 9am until 2pm. I'm not sure but I tried getting a pepsi about 3 on Friday and found them closed. You can't expect people to go withough food and drink for hours. It's just riddiculous.

2. There was only 1 concession open even during peak times. I went for lunch at 12pm on Saturday and waited in a 30 minute line. How are we expected to make repairs to our robot when we practicly have to plan 50 minues for being able to eat. Some of us have real schedules to adhere with, my breaks were practicly timed. Paying almost $10 for a meal and waiting in a 30 minute line for it is- just riddiculous.

[b00ster]

Originally posted by Koko Ed
It's a little late this year but maybe for Houston if it can get organized enough.
Perhaps we should start a food fund for teams that need the help (and before someone screams "Welfare!" please remember that we're talking gracious professionalism here first and foremost and that basically means helping out those who need the most help). A simple donation of funds from teams, pool it together and arrange it for vouchers to be used at venues so teams can at least afford to feed their kids.
The venues do deserve to make money but not at the expense of driving underfunded teams into bankruptcy. This seems like a happy medium.
Discuss.

I agree that this is a great way to help out some of the under-funded teams, but I think that there is a bigger issue at stake here... What needs to be realized here is that a lot (probably most) venues contract out their concessions. The venue has already made their money and the food-service contractor is trying to make back the money they spent on the contract and make a profit. I don't think, however, that it is right to charge teams of high school kids $7.75 for a slice of Domino's pizza and a soda. Having worked in food service for some time, I can tell you that their actual cost for this meal (just for food, not labor, contract, utitlities, etc.) is probably about $.75...if that. The food isn't even good, either.

I am not sure what level of control that FIRST has on this, but it would be nice if something could be done. I, personally, will not be buying anything from the concession stands in Houston.

[Jon K.]

Well the food at UTC isn't great. And luckily there is a McDonald's and Burger King about a half mile down the street across from the Jai-Alai place(big building that looks like a warehouse. Also they actually raised the price of the food higher than a normal event. But still 4.50 for a thing of chicken fingers is ridiculous. SO if the teams can get transportation to Burger King or McDonald's i would recommend that.

[Alex Cormier]

koko ed was totaly right it was 4.25 for a little piece of pizza, which didnt always have cheese or pepperoni tha covered the whle piece. and everything else was to expensive. so we bought subs to bring in and we got caught a few times trying to sneek them in but we very succesful sometimes. one team had brought in their food through the back door whee the loading dock is.

[Team238-aholic]

I work at the Verizon....let me tell you what my boss said to me when I was at the competition...

well first he yelled at me for not working and watching instead...lol, oh well....

but, they were going to lower their prices, but because of aramark or something, they couldn't....and they figured people wouldn't buy food because of their high prices...they also didn't expect A THOUSAND GAZILLION kids....they had no idea what was gonna happen....on friday and thursday along they sold like 900 chicken finger baskets...which is more than a hockey game...

the reason they were not open all day Friday is because...the morning help left, while the afternoon help was coming in, getting the stuff ready for dinner...therefore there was no one left in the stands...which is stupid, cause they should of at least kept it open for drinks...or opened a portable stand...i disagree with their actions on that part....

Saturday it was open the whole time....so i think they learned from Friday...

I will admit that the Verizon might make more money for a Cher concert than for FIRST. But they did not have the choice between Cher and FIRST. They had a choice between making some money with FIRST and having the expensive building staying idle for the week end. This is very different from say Disney where the FIRST people probably pushed out more profitable business.

Verizon and the food company in it (Aramark) are completely different companies...and considering i worked at Cher and knowing how FIRST went....Aramark made alot more money with FIRST than Cher, the only difference being, Cher had alcohol at it....
The Verizon on the other hand, made more money with Cher, being that they charge for tickets....

So Verizon lost out, but Aramark made a crap load of money this past weekend....

[Alfred Thompson]

In fairness, the FIRST event day is a whole lot longer then a hockey game too. To is is probably not surprising that they sold more food. And they had more hours they had to pay people.
But let's hope that the food service company learned something from this year. Next year if they lower the prices a little they may make up the difference in volume. Just think if a thousand fewer people leave for lunch!

[Bob Steele]

We attended the St. Louis Regional...
The food was not only overpriced but also terrible and completely unhealthy.

It is one thing to come to a minor league hockey game and eat nachos and a dried up hot dog and a coke for $8-10. That is one event for a few hours. To expect high school kids to eat this fare for three solid days is ridiculous..

It is totally unhealthy. We had at least 6 kids sick on Friday because of this "food"

On Saturday I bought healthy (read fresh fruit, yogurt, fresh meat, fresh bread, salad, etc and had it in the parking lot.

It was only later that I found out that we weren't supposed to even eat in the parking lot either...

I am afraid when it comes to the health of the team members
I must respectfully disobey any rule which makes them sick

We would have purchased food of it had been of sufficient quality to keep us healthy and we have several vegetarians on the team who had very little even available to eat at the site..

By the way, the food at the Science Center was EXCELLENT!!!!

thanks

Bob Steele

[petek]

The food at the Chesapeake regional at the USNA was great and cheap! At the Navy's Drydock restaurant $4.50 got you a big deli sandwich, chips and a 22 oz drink. If you had the time (which I didn't) and wanted to spend more you could go a couple of blocks into town and eat along the waterfront. Can you say "softshell crab sandwich"?

One more reason to look forward to next year's Chesapeake regional! Maybe if they advertise the food it will help them make their 77 team goal.

Pittsburgh had a food court in the arena with a sub shop, burgers, pizza and BBQ. It was cheap and it was good too. I got a 6 inch sub a bag of chips and a coke for 5 bucks. That sure beat the horrible food at SLR

[John JediMaster]

the prices at the New England Regional were way too high.

[sanddrag]

At Phoenix the prices were alright (relatively) but they were out of Coke by Thursday noon and did not get any till Saturday afternoon and they didn't have much of anything else either.

At LA, it was 3 bucks for a water or soda. WATER! - the basis of all life!

FIRST please don't continue to allow this nonsense!

PS. - However the LA regional was very relaxed about bringing in food. We walked in with like 4 pizzas and 2 cases of water and all this fruit and stuff.

[Elyse Holguin]

...ugh.... west michigan regional had TERRIBLE food at the venue.... and i never got the chance to go out for food... i was stuck in pits all day! so yeah... gr. i think i lost like, 12 pounds between the last 2 weekends b/c of food deprivation, and houston on wednesday... oh man. luckily mrs. beatty brought mike (our driver) and me food from the deli not too far... and for the rest of the people, downtown grand rapids had a lotta places to eat, and they didn't check what was being brought in... we had our big cooler of pepsi products in the pit.