- Jan 31, 2011
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Here's what happened for those of you who missed it Day 1
The Fire Marshall literally had to spend the entire weekend there. What really started this mess was awards in the ballroom. They planned very poorly and scheduled too many divisions to receive awards at once and so the ballroom hit capacity, and I believe it was convention center staff (not U.S. Finals) called the Fire Marshall. Unfortunately this meant there were Mini and Youth teams stuck on the inside and their parents were stuck on the outside unable to get to their children. There were kids on the outside who had gone to the bathroom and could hear their team getting called into the top three and the doormen wouldn't let them in. They were (in my opinion idley) threatening to arrest moms who would not back away from the doors. During the next (third?) session, some of our coaches could not get in to escort THEIR OWN TEAM to awards. Thankfully a take charge mom and dad got them where they needed to be. Day Two they fixed the issue with awards, but the Fire Marshall also found dozens of other issues that the event staff was forced to fix I.e. people sitting/standing in aisles, entrance ways etc etc. And no, they were not nice when they asked you to move.
I feel like a lot of it has to do with the fact that they removed the D.C. event this year. Two years ago it was as big as it was this year. Then last year, the event shrunk considerably, down to only one hall, because a some of the east coast was diverted to the D.C. event. But, this year they took that away so the entire east coast (and more) converged on the VBCC and they weren't prepared for the crowd size they had. I feel like they could fix this issue if they mandated which U.S. Finals event you attended, so they could have a better idea of how many teams/gyms were going to be there. There were a ton of teams from Ohio, New York, even Canada who all could have been diverted to the Indiana event. Or, move the East event to D.C. where I'm sure there are bigger convention centers
On a happier note:
Cheer Challenge Fusion received 1st place in the Small Junior 1 Division
Cheer Challenge Sparks recieved 1st in the Mini Prep (Half Year Team) Division
but there was no room for all of these teams outside the halls and to have the staff yelling at you was ridiculous. They could learn a few things from the BATC staff. Heres an idea....you are a convention center....give the teams a room to meet in!
They had an awesome routine.
