All-Star Dallas Convention Center

[MissCongeniality]

For that much $$ we should have had three-ply!!!

All that cash...someone should have made a Costco run ;)

 

[catlady]

Living in the South now, I can somewhat understand the lack of staff over the weekend with the snow and ice. If it snows or sleets in Atlanta, there isn't a soul that attempts to go work with the exception of the newly planted Northerners. It was definitely disgusting, however, I'm also sad that under the circumstances people didn't make an effort to clean up after themselves. How much effort does it really take to put your stuff by a trash can if it is overflowing? Most of the spills were caused by people tripping over other peoples trash in the aisles, and yes, I walked around for who knows how long with a paper napkin stuck to my foot. I guess I was prepared, however, had I needed to use the restrooms. :rolleyes:

 

[mamabear]

Saturday cash only admission take at the door ....just north of 1.7M$ (I had previously estimated but had that # confirmed) Entry fees approx 3.5M$.

This just needs to be repeated several times... in several discussions. There are a lot of service that seem to be lacking- but the money is definitely there.

 

[mamabear]

I am curious. How are the medical facilities at NCA?

 

[Pebbles49]

:eek::D;)Let me re-introduce myself before I add a comment, this is now Fierce_DeLite formerly, Pebbles49, still Somewhere over the Rainbow...

Okay, ummm, what I was going to say? Oh, yes! I like to think that all that money collected went directly into our young people with extra paid bids, those jackets, no less with the bling already added to them...bling is very expensive, especially if they used the Swarvoski rhinestones with extra in each 500+ pockets...etc. Btw, to mentioned and add, my daughter's jacket came already embroidered with her name and team's name already on it..(only kidding, of course!).
I wonder, How did these judges knew her team was going to win beforehand and we are not even from Texas?
But anyway, let's think positive that all that disgraceful lack of service was for a good reason and cause...

 

[mybabywantstotumble]

:eek::D;)Let me re-introduce myself before I add a comment, this is now Fierce_DeLite formerly, Pebbles49, still Somewhere over the Rainbow...

Okay, ummm, what I was going to say? Oh, yes! I like to think that all that money collected went directly into our young people with extra paid bids, those jackets, no less with the bling already added to them...bling is very expensive, especially if they used the Swarvoski rhinestones with extra in each 500+ pockets...etc. Btw, to mentioned and add, my daughter's jacket came already embroidered with her name and team's name already on it...
I wonder, How did these judges knew her team was going to win beforehand and we are not even from Texas?
But anyway, let's think positive that all that disgraceful lack of service was for a good reason and cause...

wait, did it really come embroidered with her name and team name?

 

[FierceIsTheName]

speaking of leaving ones trash on the floor, i thought this top tweet was a joke... until i found the second tweet from 2014 and the third from 2013:

i guess this is a thing.

The bottom tweet is about South Elite Diamonds lol. 2 years ago Diamonds got like 8th? Anyway they took a picture of it in the bush and said "leaving it all in Dallas from now on" as a joke saying they're going to get better after that since they'd be going to UCA in a week or two after that. They still have the trophy [emoji23]


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[Eyes On The Prize]

Someone please direct me to the thread about starting my own EP. I, too, would like to make a couple million in one weekend.

 

[TheVipersMom]

I sat in the arena both days and had no problem finding a seat dead center.

I walked up a few stairs on Saturday and people are all sitting on the stairs because it was packed and they couldn't find seats. I see 3 seats in a row with bags in them.

A nice young guy probably 20 and his friend had their feet on them.

I said are you saving those seats, he promptly moves the stuff and his feet and said no yall can sit here.

On Sunday I walked up and there were seats with bags in them I asked a woman if she had any extra seats and she just picks up the bags and hands them to someone else and said yeah just sit here. I jokingly said I'll even hold the bags for you if you would like! She said no and she was really nice and we talked .


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[randomactsofcheer]

:eek::D;)Let me re-introduce myself before I add a comment, this is now Fierce_DeLite formerly, Pebbles49, still Somewhere over the Rainbow...

Okay, ummm, what I was going to say? Oh, yes! I like to think that all that money collected went directly into our young people with extra paid bids, those jackets, no less with the bling already added to them...bling is very expensive, especially if they used the Swarvoski rhinestones with extra in each 500+ pockets...etc. Btw, to mentioned and add, my daughter's jacket came already embroidered with her name and team's name already on it..(only kidding, of course!).
I wonder, How did these judges knew her team was going to win beforehand and we are not even from Texas?
But anyway, let's think positive that all that disgraceful lack of service was for a good reason and cause...

I heard they used diamonds instead of Swarvoski this year. That is what the first $1 million in entry fees went to. If you are really feeling strapped for cash come Summit or Worlds time, you can pick the bling off your jacket and use it to pay for food.

 

[Pebbles49]

I heard they used diamonds instead of Swarvoski this year. That is what the first $1 million in entry fees went to. If you are really feeling strapped for cash come Summit or Worlds time, you can pick the bling off your jacket and use it to pay for food.

Shush, I did not want those teams who lost to feel too bad... But really only winning teams from Texas got real diamonds, my daughter's jacket is blinged with fake diamonds or cubic zircona: Why I know, I stopped off at the jeweler and had the bling appraised to pay for Summit fees...lol

 

[specialtpass]

I sat in the arena both days and had no problem finding a seat dead center.

I walked up a few stairs on Saturday and people are all sitting on the stairs because it was packed and they couldn't find seats. I see 3 seats in a row with bags in them.

A nice young guy probably 20 and his friend had their feet on them.

I said are you saving those seats, he promptly moves the stuff and his feet and said no yall can sit here.

On Sunday I walked up and there were seats with bags in them I asked a woman if she had any extra seats and she just picks up the bags and hands them to someone else and said yeah just sit here. I jokingly said I'll even hold the bags for you if you would like! She said no and she was really nice and we talked .


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This is the first year seating was easier to walk in and find. There were two times in the arena that were packed and seating was crazy, during Large All Girl and when Brandon Senior Black performed. At other times of the day seats were not hard to get if you climbed the stairs or sat to the sides. NCA did a great job in how they scheduled the divisions this year. There was obviously some real work that went into that scheduling and it paid off. Starting with Large Coed in the arena and putting the Y5 and J5 divisions in the halls seemed to stop the early seat saving that has always occurred in the past. The Priority Seating Area also alleviated seating issues and that addition was long overdue. I will give NCA kudos for what they got right this year. Weather you can't control and it's true that employees could not get to work at the Convention Center. The West End restaurants which usually bustles with cheerleaders was like a ghost town with quite a few restaurants closed. Eating and finding food in Dallas this year was for sure the biggest challenge.

 

[mommycheer]

THIS WAS WHAT I HAD POSTED IN THE NCA FORUM:
Home now..some thoughts and issues after my first NCA experience....

1. Stay to Play is just awful and should be illegal. The fact that our team was assigned a hotel 12 miles away from the venue and was basically "forced" to stay there is just nuts. Weather rendered the roads un-drivable and made it next to impossible for our team to get to the venue. Had we been able to book on our own (especially knowing that bad weather had been an issue the year before) we would have chosen to stay in the city within walking distance of the venue. To be "told" where we HAD to stay is just crazy. Had our team bus, myself or a member of my family been injured or killed due to road conditions on the drive to the venue Connections Housing, NCA and the city of Dallas would have had one heck of a lawsuit on their hands.

2. The venue itself was awful by Sunday...piles of garbage everywhere, very few food choices available.

3. Inadequate security enforcing the "no seat saving" rules...all around us were seats being "saved"...not for people who needed to get up to use the bathroom or grab a bite to eat, but multiple seats being "saved" with jackets/backpacks etc for hours on end...one of our Moms had security come up to find out why a team was saving an entire row for their athletes who were not anywhere in sight...even after the security guard told the team that the seats could not be saved the team parents still refused to move the jackets and backpacks!!!!

4. Although it may only snow once a year, the business owners in and around Dallas really need to buy some sand and shovels!!! Sidewalks ,pathways and parking lots around the Convention Center, DART and our hotel should have been shoveled and/or sanded. Instead they were left with an icy covering which made it very dangerous for pedestrians. I understand the reasoning around the fact that they do not salt the roads but playground sand and gardening shovels are readily available in any Home Depot and should be used.

All in all, the competition experience itself was amazing!!! The girls on our team loved it!!!! The parents, not so much at all. The biggest problem being the Stay to Play and our distance from the venue. We were less than 2 miles from a DART station but on Friday and Saturday those 2 miles were a death trap. Putting my CP on the bus with her teammates and watching them drive off on an ice covered road was a stress that no parent should be forced to go through.
It remains to be seen if our gym will attend NCA next year. After the experience that we had this past weekend, it is totally up in the air. I do know already the coaches and parents are already looking at the loopholes in Stay to Play so that our team's athletes and families will not be put in the dangerous situation that we were put in this year.
I want to thank everyone on this forum for all of the tips!!! The information that I learned in advance here was passed on to our team families, therefore eliminating some of the stresses of the weekend. Mother Nature can really be a friend or a foe and it is too bad that she chooses the latter for NCA weekends :( The city of Dallas needs to take her a bit more seriously!!! LOLOL
Thank you again everyone :)

POSTED THIS THE DAY AFTER...
I was still so upset by this that today I placed a call Bonnie Zitek, the Convention Center Facility Manager. I went into graphic detail the disgusting condition of the venue...facts which she was already aware of. She said that the cleaning company is contracted out so not directly staffed by the facility. 50% of the cleaning crew called out sick on Saturday. She also stated that it is not so easy to call in anyone else in their place since there is a contract in place, although this is not the first issue they have had with this company. She also stated that the Convention Center is under the control of the city of Dallas and not independently run which makes for any changes in contracts to take a bit more time. I told her if that was the case, that perhaps someone should have called the mayor of Dallas in to dump some garbage since the conditions in the bathrooms were most definitely violations of health codes. LOLOLOL In any case, she was very understanding and aware of the issues this past weekend. If anyone else feels like complaining I would recommend that you call the Mayor's office since basically he is the head honcho of the Convention Center. :)

I also posted on the Convention Center's Facebook page as did a few other people...still seething about this whole thing...my first NCA experience was not a good one :(

 

[mybabywantstotumble]

But admit it, that jerky was good!

It IS good, I brought an extra bag home with me.

 

[JustaParent]

This was my first experience at NCA and if we never go back it would not bother me in the least, LOL! I don't like the STP policy at all. Our hotel was 17 miles away so needless to say the ride to and from all weekend was very dangerous and scary especially for someone who hates driving in ice and snow!!! Its unbelieveable to me that Dallas does not treat anything....the walk from the parking lot to the convention center was scary, it was just a sheet of ice!! The bathroom by the meeting rooms was atrocious, made the whole area smell like sewage, trash overflowing and no toilet paper and to top it all off we finished in last place cuz our coed stunt didn't go up, kind of a bummer :( The whole weekend to me was very stressful and I was so glad to get home, LOL!