Alright,
I have read most of the posts about the Championships. The planning committee and the city of Atlanta does want to know what was good and bad in order to improve next year. There has been a lot of criticizing on a number of topics such as the food and the walk from the pits to the dome. I would like to hear more suggestions as to what you think could be done to change the situations that were less than perfect. So what do you think? What should be changed and how?
Let’s see…
The good:
Food wasn’t that bad
Facilities were nice
Lots of nearby lodging, and lots of good food near that lodging
The bad:
5 escalator walk from pits to stadium, thus making it hard to contact everyone on the team at once.
Definitely they should shorten the walk from pits to stadium.
#1: make the practice field a practice field again…PLEASE PLEASE
#2: I don’t know if it is possible, but could the no noisemakers rule in the dome be lightened up a bit…it was much less animated (at least at archimedes) than I have see in years past…
Thank You for hearing me out…and go 1002! you guys rock!
I thought the pit-to-field walk (for the robot) was awesome. But I would like to see extra passes for at least 3 pit crew members to join the driveteam on the field during matches. They cannot realistically make it to the stands (esp in Archimedes) to watch their robot compete. Since there is so much space on the floor, it should not cause any problems to allow 12 extra people per field to stand out there and watch. The pit crew definitely needs to see their robot matches so they’re ready to repair/improve it when it goes back to the pits. It would also allow somebody besides the drive team to cart the robot back, in case the driveteam wants to watch matches they can go directly to the stands.
Although the walk was certainly long and tiring to make for spectators between the pits and stands, I think the main issue is people flow. Many times it would be frustrating to see that every and all “down” escalators were jam packed because everyone was standing on them. I don’t know who or how could control this, but it would be nice to utilize them as “walk left, stand right”, esp on the way down to the pits where there were 3 escalators. Yes there are stairs down the hall, but it’d be nice to see escalators used like most other places or the airport walking conveyors. It would help the people traffic flow a little better. Unless of course there is a shorter or better route. It’s gonna be difficult either way having thousands and thousands of people taking the same route. It would be nice to see them open up more of the doors to the buildings for people to enter or exit. In archimedes, it would be nice to have a few doors on that end open from the outside so that some people wouldn’t have to fight the crowds inside on the long walk around. (I only went out one of those doors once, and not sure if they were unlocked to come back through). Then there can be a sign directing Archimedes division people to that side.
The only other main issues I’ve seen or heard about would be the audibility of announcements in some pits, and the overhead screens being hard to see in the pits. It was difficult to hear several pit announcers for your match call, and somebody suggested possibly a “tone or sound” to preceed an announcement. Only once or twice did I see the calls made too early and we ended up waiting 5-6 matches before ours, but otherwise the queuing efforts were excellent! Whatever was done for that, I hope to see again!
And others have mentioned the practice field. Not sure if there’s room, but maybe there could be a second one… One field for 2 divisions, one field for the other two. It’s gonna be a pain either way you look at it, having 300 teams there, but having an extra field (or even half a field!) could alleviate the waiting and strict limited time. Or, if 2 full fields are avialable, you can use a half-field for each division.
I thought everything else was pretty darn good. The wrap-up party was fun, and the food there was great.
One suggestion I have is in regards to unloading vehicles/trailers on Thursday. Everyone had a lot of stuff that needed to be brought into the pits, and having to wait in line for an hour for an elevator is a bit much. Especially when you consider that this is a convention center, and that there has to be loading docks that are on the same level as the pits (I know there are, since they let us load up there at the end of the competition).
I had an $11 lunch from one of the vendors (BBQ pork sandwich) which was pretty awful. I know there’s a lot of politics with regards to stadiums and their contracted vendors, but $11 for a lunch that’s on par with a $4 meal from a fast food joint is really pretty bad. It’s not that big of a deal, but it’s the kind of thing that really irritates guests who just stop by to watch. Paying that much for 1 meal at a football game is one thing, but when the event goes on for 3 days and many people are there from early morning till mid evening it really adds up. I would think that it’s a major turnoff to outsiders who may just happen to stop by with their kids after seeing it on the news or whatever.
{edit} I should have added this before, but… Overall, I thought the event was really great. The venue was very nice, the team party was fantastic, and our team had a great time. A lot of the problems identified from Houston seem to have been addressed (I’m not knocking Houston - it was a good event too, especially for the short notice. Being the first time away from Disney in many years had to have been a difficult job.) Hopefully the trend of year-over improvements will continue as everyone learns how best to run an event in a sports complex instead of a parking lot.
We really needed to sort out our autonomous code, but had nowhere to do it. The practice field was too crowded and we only needed a quarter of the field to work on. Having an out of the way spot where 4 - 8 autonomous only practice fields could be set would have been a huge improvement.
The food was definately better, price and quality wise, than other events I have attended, so no complaints there. And plus, we had the food tickets. But I’ll whole heartedly agree that the run from the pits to the Archimedes stands was more than a hassle, having made that journey many, many times each day. A second entrance, maybe? I think the elevator, along with the stairs and escalators should have been allowed to be used. I had used it twice, maybe three times, but the next time I tried it to save my legs, there was a man inside saying I couldn’t use it, it being only for handicapped and such. That does make sense, so I won’t say anything more about that. I know that it’s hard to have a nice, agreeable distance between the pits and the stands at something as large as Nat’s, but it’s the only thing I could find to complain about, being that I was running back to my scouts in between matches.
I agree that this year loading and unloading for teams was a pain. Good news is that the plans for next year should resolve this issue allowing teams to unload into the pit area much easier. 
Compared to last year, food was excellent! I highly reccomend keeping the coupon system, it worked great. The walk to the pits was a bit far, but better than last year. My suggestion would be to keep everything the same, unless you can come up with a better idea for the pits.
We were talking about that in my FIRST Class today. The pits should be closer next year. Since the Home Show was there at the same time it made it harder to have to pits close to the stands.
How do you get those coupons?
I agree that the walk from the Pit Area to the Competition area was much too long. Maybe, as others have suggested, two or three of the pit crew could use the drive team tunnel.
The practice field was nice, but 4 quarter fields for autonomous mode testing would have been much more useful.
Did anyone else notice that the food prices increased between Thursday and Friday? That was annoying.
The Championship event went very well. I have been to the Disney event & know that there are many ways to improve the event.
The Highs.
*Atlanta is a nice place, not too hard to get around. I usually walked to & from the event but when I was too tired there was MARTA for $1.75.
*The food ticket Idea was great. It gave options, everybody likes options.
*The pit was big enough, It didn’t feel too cramped & hard to navigate.
*Seating was good for the divisions, usually easy to see the matches.
** The Wrap party, WOW the best I’ve ever been to. Better than Epcot. Good food & lots to do. Not overly spread out, & easy to locate everything.
The lows.
-The Walk. As mentioned by everyone the walk was long. The weather was beautiful, I would have loved to walked outside if that was possible & I’m sure it was, give me that option. Open up more doors to the event. I’ll walk around the building outside rather than inside.
I agree with all that has been said, but how about this: More fields? There was plenty of space on the floor for at least 2 more fields. Teams only played 6 matches. This means that if they lost 3 of them, they were likely to be in the lower half of seeding. Or they could always keep the matches the same and allow more teams to come down. Either way, I think there should be more fields.
This was my first year on my team and I enjoyed the championship event. My first suggestion would be to allow some non drive team members passes to be in the stadium to fix the robot if it had any minor problems - or, during the eliminations of each division or even just the Einstein matches have a mini-pit (for a toolbox or 2, spare parts) set up behind the fields so the team does not have to run back to get parts or other things. I stood behind the fields a few times and there is a TON of room there for a few mini-pits for the elims. its just there might be power supply problems or restrictions set by the georgia dome commitee that won’t allow this. Thats about it for idea #1
On to #2- have a carpeted area or something so that programs could be practiced. it doesn’t even need to be a field, just carpet. Teams could come in and use duct tape markers and practice programs. all that was availible at atlanta was the bit of carpet behind the hall of fame.
and my last suggestion (#3): the big escalator outside of entrance C became overcrowded many times - it broke a few times, causing a few minutes worth of delay (enough to miss your match). if there are any extra stairs or elevators out there to ease traffic, that would also be great.
Summary:
1)Mini-Pits in stadium for elims or Einstein
2)Carpeted area for programing practice
3)More routes from pits to stadium, if availible
Overall I think the championship event was fun and exciting, and the pits weren’t too much of a problem (good execise?). I can’t wait for next season!
_Alex
You should have been there when we moved in…
We were first in line at the front door at 5am!! No troubles for us moving in, aside from FIRST deciding after our three were already on the elevator that carts were allowed…( they told us only what we coud carry, otherwise we would have been able to bring everything in.
There seemed to be more than enough room on the floor to allow people to come down to the field level to cheer.
Also, on Newton, the cheering wasn’t as exciting as it can be at a regional. The music was barely audible, and the camera didn’t pan the crowd. Music and crowd shots always raise the intensity!
I think the pit crew passes is a great idea!
One day I stepped outside to answer a phone call, when I went to come back inside, the security guy at the door told me I couldn’t come in there unless I was with FLL. I had to walk half way around the building outside, to get in a door to walk back half way around inside. Seems unnecessary.
I loved Atlanta. The weather was great. I wish I had taken better advantage of it.
I think the one thing holding this back is frequencies. There are only enough to have four (maybe five, I can’t remember) fields.
Personally, I saw (more like heard) a few folks on Archimedes bend/break/set aflame the noisemakers rule…if we’re gonna enforce it, we’ve gotta enforce it.
Although I will agree with the idea to give out three non-driver badges to teams. Kinda like the team support badges in eliminations–12 more warm bodies around the field won’t hurt a thing…as long as they don’t block my view of the red goals, of course. 
it seems now there will always be a long walk from the pits to the stands cause of FIRST growing-- but yeah with more students allowed back with the bot if it is such a long walk is a good idea. I know our team doesn’t have any radio-phone system to contact people back in the stands while on the way back that something is broken. Our driver and operators don’t always know how to fix the bot–only two of them did which was good.
But with the food-- our team didn’t use the coupons. I’m guessing that was for the packages and we didn’t go to the team party the last one S.P.A.M. went to was the last one in Epcot so I can’t compare. Our team though found that food court near the stadium, just a short walk and there was tons of fast food places to eat.
And reading y’alls posts-- i agree there should have been another practice field-- a half woud have been great-- i’m sure the hall of fame could have been placed somewhere else therefore another field could have been placed. the practice field was really helpful if u’r team could get time to use it.
First I gotta say, Atlanta was great. However…
Many people are making comments about the venue, especially the long walk between the pits and the stands. This was a big problem in Houston last year that had to be fixed. What amazed me this year was how close the pits and stands actually were. But it seemed FIRST (or the Georgia Dome management and staff) went out of their way to make the trip even longer. Think about it. How many exits were blocked off? Remember the elevators we loaded stuff into the pits through on thursday morning? Why did they need to close them? That alone would have cut the trip in half. There were at least half a dozen exits that would’ve made the trip much shorter that were blocked off for no apparent reason. Even though they were blocked, many people were using them. They also blocked off the main doors to the Georgia dome and made everybody take the outside escalator down to the lower level to get in. They blocked off another entrance and said it was for FLL only. Again, why do this? Why not have several possible routes to take?
The route the robots and drive team took were the shortest by far. Here’s a question, why limit their access for only drive team and robots? Remember in Houston last year, people and robots took the same route all the way until they reached the stadium and then separated. Why couldn’t the short route have been open to all. Then before the entrance to the stadium floor have a gate for robots and drive team only, then route all the other people up to the main levels. This alone would have made the trip a ton shorter. Having several routes open would have controlled the crowds better. It’s a lot of walking, and not every one of us has a Segway.
I am glad FIRST issued stickers which allowed a team’s pit crew to get to the main floor during the finals. That was a necessity, and I’m glad FIRST recognized that. But even for the regular matches, allowing 3 extra people per team to enter won’t hurt much, and it will save a ton of walking.