I am watching the NFL playoff game between the Falcons and the Packers.
The Georgia Dome will be demolished soon. 
What are you best memories of the CMP at the Georgia Dome?
The long walk from the Pits?. The event in Centennial Park?
The availability of Hotel rooms to great Public Transit?
The Varsity? The Tornado damage?
The ease of getting direct flights to ATL?
The upsets?
Fun fact: Less NFC Championship games have been played at the Georgia Dome than FIRST Championships there.
I won the 2010 FTC World Championship in the GA Dome back in high school. I’ll miss the place, but the new stadium is definitely nice.
I’m gonna miss that place.
Our rookie FLL World Championship at the Dome! We will miss it!
The trash bag art on the upper decks of 2004, and meeting all these crazy people working Archimedes.
HOT doing the double.
25’s first loss of the season on Saturday in 2006, and them (and 968, and 195) very nearly winning a title. 968 would’ve poured some extra-spicy gasoline on the “254 is the best team without a championship” fire. Oh, and I got to referee the FVC world championship finals. Half-Pipe Hustle is criminally underrated as a game.
The Ringer of Destiny in 2007, with a side order of Einstein being set up improperly.
For 2008, I had finagled a media badge through USC for a class project and was down in the media pen for Einstein. After Finals 1, 217 comes and drops anchor right in front of us and starts doing preflight checks. It was glorious footage that I wish I still had over the years.
2009: Finally competing with a team! Also, getting screwed on Curie. (11th seed, and we both missed playoffs and Highest Rookie Seed? C’mon, son!)
2010: The 469/1114 coronation-turned-dethroning. Simply thrilling to watch from the stands.
Oh, and best of all: Champs only being about four hours from my house. No overnight bus rides back then, though I suppose 5 hours to St. Louis or 4 hours to Detroit restores that somewhat.
Freshman year (2010) my team qualified for Champs (woo #1 seed and Regional Win OKC) so just attending as a first year participant in general. I did media for the team at the time so got a nice little fieldside badge and everything. The 4 minute walk into the roaring crowd, seeing 469’s gamebreaker in person, 1114 and 469 breaking the game further with a crazy 6-0 match, Dave’s upside-down history lessons. Man, the nostalgia is crazy…
I remember that day! My favorite memory of the Georgia Dome!
(Former Under the Son - FTC 2843 Strategy Coach)
Steve
Probably walking all the way to the furthest field (Archimedes) from the pits just to find out we had the wrong bumper color. That is a “fun” run all the way back to get the correct bumpers before our match.
Almost exactly the same as my story. Man, that was a great way to cap off my first year in FRC
There was always something special about each FIRST Championship in Atlanta. Something electric.
But for me, the most memorable moment was the closing ceremony of the final championship to be held in Atlanta in 2010, before the move to St. Louis. It felt like a fitting departure - less of a farewell and more of a celebration of what had been an amazing seven years.
I have lots great memories from the Georgia Dome both competing and volunteering but my favorite moment was watching Chris Fultz get his Championship Woodie Flowers Award.
Thanks for posting that link. I was a ref on Newton that year and enjoyed watching the spectacular teamwork between those two teams.
As someone who volunteered every year the champs were in Atlanta, we’d love to have everyone back.
The perks of being a long time Atlanta volunteer means that I have a few out there favorite memories 
my best friend and I got to race segways around the inner ring of the dome, this is also where all the maintenance carts and things drive around the field, and where I discovered how non intuitive twisting forward and backward was for right and left controls!
there’s a photo somewhere (I can’t find it) of my friend and I playing around in a bunch of spare tubes from Rack n Roll (2007) on the Dome floor in between Einstein matches
got to meet both Dean and Woodie, even got to talk about potential paths for college with Woodie and sign his shirt
(also fitting that I would post directly under my dad’s post!)
Having joined Team 1676 for the 2010 season, I was fortunate to experience the last year of the FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome. I can vividly remember staying in the Omni Hotel attached to the CNN Center food court, with news footage of the smoke from the erupting volcano in Iceland affecting European flights playing on the huge hanging TV. The short walk to the Dome was great, and I fondly miss the large outdoor courtyard between the dome and the pits. There were kids playing with RC cars and helicopters, and if I remember correctly the Dean’s List presentation was out there was well. 2010 was the closest 1676 ever got to tasting Einstein, being picked by 1986 along with 888 and backup 1421 for the third seeded alliance on Curie before ultimately losing to the beastly 1114-469-2041 alliance in the finals. And I could never forget the “after party” in Centennial Olympic Park, complete with an awesome drum show and an amazing fireworks display. For a freshman, the entire experience was absolutely incredible and definitely left a lasting impact. I certainly hope that with the Mercedes-Benz Dome being finished soon, a *FIRST *Championship could return back to Atlanta one day.
I remember telling my kids to hang up out giant 25 x 20 banner we had from the upper deck not realizing that teams were banned from going up there. The two boys who went up there hung the banner up and were immediately perused by security. They claimed they had the most fun at the event hiding in bathrooms and behind garbage cans eluding security and jumping down the ramps to escape them(they were into parkour so they were of course going to take the crazy way down). One of them ended up spraining his ankle doing that and I felt bad enabling them to be in that position and threw the banner away after the event.
Oh and peeing next to the Woz.
George Bush’s speech in 2008:
“like the WWF, but for smart people.”
Watching this live my rookie year of FRC. Was blown away by how exciting the match was and by how great the commentary was. Seven years later, still my favorite match of all time.