My thoughts on the new arena...
1. Hell on earth is that shoebox of a room for coaches to pick up deductions, scoresheets and draw. Why they chose a room that small is beyond me. Why they also chose to put safety & deduction challenges in that same room is again a poor choice. Sunday seemed a little better, but not something they should ever choose to do again!
2. There's no reason our announcement of finalists happened past 11 pm on Saturday night, followed by over an hour of waiting down in that same awful room & hallway to draw. If finalists have been announced, then shouldn't scoresheets be ready? Walking out of the arena past midnight and having to be ready to go in the morning at 6 am for JV was not fun!
3. It's the largest event so far in this building. You know from past years how much food should be needed. Why are some concessions closed and others running out of food on day 1?
4. Can we please have a coaches hospitality room? This is one of the largest events and doesn't have a room for coaches to sit, relax, and charge a phone. Not even asking for water or snacks (though that would be nice!)
5. Announcement of finalists was a joke. Good luck hearing if your school was called! The audio was rough to say the least. I was in east and couldn't hear a thing. Went to north and could hear the east arena but not the north. The middle school in front of us couldn't hear their music. The judges scored them a ZERO on pyramid even though they hit it perfectly. Music issues majorly need to be fixed!!
6. Entire front row of seats on both sides of photographers need to be reserved for coaches, alternates and teams. Random people were sitting in reserved seats and the staff wouldn't let our other team or alternates sit up front. Tried to make some of our coaches leave once and that poor staffer learned his lesson.
7. Don't tell teams and coaches to wait some where until you come get them AND THEN NEVER COME GET THEM. Staff backstage in arena north Saturday were particularly bad. We were next on stage and they hadn't even come to get our music coach. Happened more than once. Sunday staff change was better.
8. The master check-in table is great in theory, if you happen to be checking in and arriving down there. What about the rest of the day when you're upstairs or backstage already, now I have to walk the big loop around just to tell you I'm here again? Got old after a few times and by time 6, we just stopped checking in. #sorrynotsorry
9. Why they built a brand new building with such tight walkways is beyond me. Why they built bathrooms downstairs with only two stalls is beyond me. Why they made bathrooms upstairs with more than one entrance, so people can argue about whose turn it is, is again beyond me. It also seems that they just stopped cleaning and restocking the restrooms downstairs. No toilet paper and it was disgusting.
10. Warm-up room ran great. Line up to get into warm-up room, not so much. Those poor girls struggled, especially after draws when the division is supposed to start and they don't even have an order.
11. Biggest disappointment was that most people forgot about HP. No one goes that far. It was crickets down there. The arena for the most prestigious teams in the division, isn't even getting a crowd like it used to. Food trucks feel forever away from the arena, making you just settle for concessions. I have a feeling the food trucks lost a lot of money as opposed to years past.
