I thought the food in Cleveland was overpriced and underwhelming. There’s got to be a better way.
VCU had a concession stand with pizza. Not bad.
Like normal the food was overpriced. That’s why the TechnoKats always make our lunches and bring them with us. Then we eat them out of our trailer in the parking lot. St. Louis was really strict about not letting in outside food/drink. That was kinda ok, but they even went as far (on Saturday) to say that we couldnt even eat outside food in the parking lot!
Oh well
*Originally posted by Clark Gilbert *
**Like normal the food was overpriced. That’s why the TechnoKats always make our lunches and bring them with us. Then we eat them out of our trailer in the parking lot. St. Louis was really strict about not letting in outside food/drink. That was kinda ok, but they even went as far (on Saturday) to say that we couldnt even eat outside food in the parking lot!Oh well **
That is just plain evil!
We are a well funded team and I bet the Technokats are well funded as well but there are plenty of teams in FIRST who are struggling to make ends meet and these venues are being allowed to maul them for their nasty overpriced food is just plain wrong!:mad:
We don’t pay $4,000 for this nonsense. We are in their all day for three days and the least they could do is let us bring something to eat.
What FIRST should do next year is just buy out the concessions for the duration of the event. In other words, pay the concession company whatever they would have made anyway and get them out so we can bring in our own food.
Please don’t discuss ways to smuggle food into the competition anymore.
FIRST makes rules for a reason, if you want to discuss ways around them, please do it elsewhere. Thanks.
(That was kinda ok, but they even went as far (on Saturday) to say that we couldnt even eat outside food in the parking lot!).
This really stinks and I had a feeling they would start doing this. Their food is disgusting and way over priced, what we need is a uniform strike against this outrage and just not buy anything from these crooks. The food consesions is a bonus for the halls and is “not” factored in to the price of the rental.
Our team is on a “very tight” budget and some members could not afford to go to the regional even though they worked just as hard as the other members.
Some times I wonder if FIRST really cares, the poorer teams need help and as far as im concerned I will be bringing food to the regional.
I bet they dont feed the judges and stage help that garbage so where does this food come from!!!
The food at BAE was the usual overpriced concession food (but not actually bad). The real problem was that the concession stand didn’t stay open during the entire event, so our programming team (who missed the lunch break) were unable to buy anything to eat, and also unable to bring in any outside food!
Fortunatly, there were a number of good cheap restaurants withing walking distance (we found an excellent Mexican place that had very good 1 pound burritos for around $4), but that only worked for people who could afford to leave the pits for 30 or 40 minutes.
The food at the team party was very good, provided you liked tortellini, but the hour long lines weren’t.
eat on the sidewalk, its public property so they wouldn’t be able to stop you.
Cant wait to walk over to mustards in chicago, that place rules!
They would let you eat in the parking lot at St.Louis as long as you weren’t too close tothe door. but the prices were way too expensive. We had to make sandwiches too.
Hey Everyone,
I am not going to say the food wasn’t over priced at the BAE regional which was held at the Verizon Wireless arena but lets look at it from the perspective of the Arena for a minute. In the paper it said that BAE paid 300,000 to rent the Verizon center for the entire compeition. So let’s assume that this is 100,000 per day and that there are 10,000 seats in the Verizon that means that the essentially “sold-out” the areana for 3 days at $10 per person. Consider that when Cher comes there and sells out the Verizon it is at considerably more that $10 per person. The way I see it the operators of these venues have to be loosing big money on FIRST and they need to recoupe it in some manner up goes the food prices. Typically what I do is walk to some place off-site as there are usally food options within walking distance of most venues.
I think we should deal with the food prices and be happy that we can have FIRST competitions in these wonderful arenas!!!
On a closing note, as a 8 year veteran of FIRST I grew up with a regional at New Hampshire College in Manchester, NH (where I live and where FIRST was born). This was an absolutely amazing FIRST venue as anyone who remembers it will surely tell you. In 1999 FIRST got to big for the city of Manchester and was forced to leave…I would like to thank BAE for sponsoring the return of FIRST to New Hampshire, a place where it sure belongs. THANK YOU BAE!!!
-Justin
*Originally posted by Koko Ed *
**I thought the food in Cleveland was overpriced and underwhelming. There’s got to be a better way. **
Exactly the same at verizon. Plus, they kept on closing it down so we couldn’t get drinks at the end of the day when we were the most thirsty.
–Petey
*Originally posted by Petey *
**Exactly the same at verizon. Plus, they kept on closing it down so we couldn’t get drinks at the end of the day when we were the most thirsty.–Petey **
ARGH!
I HATE WHEN THEY DO THAT!!!:mad:
*Originally posted by Koko Ed *
**That is just plain evil!
We are a well funded team and I bet the Technokats are well funded as well but there are plenty of teams in FIRST who are struggling to make ends meet and these venues are being allowed to maul them for their nasty overpriced food is just plain wrong!:mad: **
Hear hear.
I understand the position of everyone on this but many teams are cash strapped enough as it is. I was talking to the only vermont team–team 885–and they were telling me how they only spent a few hundred bucks on their robot, how no big companies would sponsor them, about how the head of the team was a weaver and how they made their own costumes themselves, about how they made their robot in 10 days because no one would let them use their machine shop unless a team mentor was working at the machine shop itself and the team didn’t have any engineer mentors. Their robot broke and there was one piece that would have fixed it, but it cost 100 bucks and they couldn’t afford it. Luckily, our team had a spare one and gave it to them, but there are tons of stories like this and while it may be over-dramatizing the issue, the bottom line is that the service as manchvegas was terrible. Overpriced, huge lines because they wouldn’t open up the other eating place right down the hall, and they closed it so much that people who didn’t rush out right away couldn’t get anything to eat and drink.
–Petey
*Originally posted by Justin *
**Hey Everyone,
So let’s assume that this is 100,000 per day and that there are 10,000 seats in the Verizon that means that the essentially “sold-out” the areana for 3 days at $10 per person. Consider that when Cher comes there and sells out the Verizon it is at considerably more that $10 per person. -Justin **
Yes but i doubt if the venue sees more then $10 per person… when tickets are sold for a show at a venue like that its the promoter that gets the money because they already fronted the money to pay for the venue and the promoter/artists/ticket reps set the prices. Then things like ticketmaster have alot to say about the prices and then you have to pay everyone involved like the crew, the band, the management, the other people involved so i doubt if a venue gets paid more then 100.000 when an artists comes there to perform.
The venues aren’t really loosing money because how many of them have concerts at 8:30 on a thursday? Obviously if there was something else scheduled at that time then they wouldn’t be having the competition and if they were loosing tons of money they wouldn’t do it either.
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.
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
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.
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:
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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.
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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.
*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.