All-Star Too Small A Venue

[ACEDAD]

This may be a totally stupid question, but how much bigger overall/total is worlds than, say, Cheersport or any of the other big events.

Worlds is much smaller than Cheersport or NCA or Jamfest.

I would love to see Worlds in Atlanta. In fact that's where the first Worlds was going to be. I even got some materials from Regan Rozypal about it being in Atlanta (wish I had kept it).

 

[ACEDAD]

It's a supply and demand issue. The supply is short and demand high. So, one possibility is $10 to get in to WWoS but only have access to the Live viewing party; $25 to get the previous and access to Jostens; $50 to get all the previous and access to the Milkhouse.

 

[dee77]

It's a supply and demand issue. The supply is short and demand high. So, one possibility is $10 to get in to WWoS but only have access to the Live viewing party; $25 to get the previous and access to Jostens; $50 to get all the previous and access to the Milkhouse.

I really like this idea, however I would adjust it as follows:
$10 to get in to WWoS with live viewing party
$25 to get in to WWoS and Jostens OR Milkhouse
$50 for all three
...having Milkhouse only an option for the most expensive tickets doesn't seem fair and also belittles the teams that are in Jostens.

 

[GreatWhite92]

Just a thought but as an immediate change.. Move the judges area. I don't know where it would be moved but the entire back section of the milkhouse was awful seating. That is a couple hundred seats lost. Chairs could be put on the ground level too similar to jostens.

I always thought the judges area was in a horrible spot. You cant even begin to sit in the back of the milkhouse and see. But honestly where in the world else would they put it?

 

[coldasICE]

I always thought the judges area was in a horrible spot. You cant even begin to sit in the back of the milkhouse and see. But honestly where in the world else would they put it?

I agree. As much as I would love to see the judges table moved, there really isn't any other ideal place for them. Ground level I feel is inconvenient for the officiating judges as they wouldn't be able to catch a performance from an elevated area where everything is visible, and the family and friends of the competitors interfere with their ability to see the routine as well.

 

[xotumble3xo]

Good question. I hate to say it, but the simple solution would be to buy a ticket. Set it up so that each athlete gets access to three pre-sale tickets - one each for mom and dad, and one for the athlete.

 

[cheermom]

If anyone else suggests / insinuates that more people arriving early somehow helps the problem in any way shape or form, I may have to tape down my caps lock key. This includes the idea that not arriving early means people didn't "deserve" to get good seats. Again - 15,000 people do not fit into 3,000 seats. It doesn't matter when they show up.

We were there at 6:30am on Sat. and 5:45am on Sun. arriving early really did not help. All it did was allow us thru the turnstiles at 7am to go to the Milkhouse and wait until 7:45am when they opened the door. Sunday was a little scary, the ropes weren't set up and the crowd got larger and larger more pushing happened. The thought of getting trampled crossed my mind. While we were standing at the doors to get in on Sunday the WWoS worker said that ticket sales exceeded the venue almost six times over. You can't tell me they didn't see this coming just off of numbers on Sat. Not five minutes after opening the doors at least the first 10 or more rows from ground up were completely filled. I am all in to purchase my seat, I pick the row and seat, and I would pay more for it. Rather do that then risk being hurt to get a good seat.

As perverse and counter-productive as it sounds, the only band-aid to the overcrowding at this point is to make the event much less attractive to the fans. Moving popular divisions away from each other, moving awards to different locations, putting popular divisions at inopportune times, and severely raising the price of admission could all decrease the problem a bit. However, treating the athletes and spectators this way goes against the stated mission of the USASF. Those fans are what can save this sport and/or make it much more mainstream. The governing body of the sport should be doing what it can to savor, nurture, and increase the number of fans & spectators - not trying to find ways to turn them away.

There are people in the industry who have predicted this very thing would happen. Many have been practically screaming for a venue change for years. By 2007, the venue was already to small. The only real solution is to move the event.

Assuming you can't move the event, here are other minor solutions that don't adversely affect the athletes or families.

1. Get rid of the VIP area. The people that are actually "very important" are the parents and athletes, not the event producers, choreographers, or board members. Use that space to improve the viewing for family members (see #3)

Many of the people that were seated around me said the same thing much of those seats weren't used a good portion of the day.

2. Live, real-time scoring with a leader board outside. Make use of the technology available and have huge screens that are constantly putting up information like what was on the google doc, but make it a fun and entertaining atmosphere. Have a MASSIVE screen showing the live feed from ALL arenas. Have live feeds from the warmup room and behind the backdrop. Think block party with high-tech scoreboards. Make it fun enough for the casual fans to prefer to be there than at the actual event. Make it informative and high-tech enough to make many hard-core fans prefer it as well.

This could be easy for Disney to do. They already stream into the ball field why not make that area an attractive place to watch the competition and not the same price as being in the actual venue.

3. Get a much better control on who is in the "fan" group that gets to sit down in front or stand in the fan zone. I only recognized about 1/2 of the people that jumped into our "parents & family" group that go to sit down in front of the stage. This should be reserved for ACTUAL family members. In our experience, there were far too many non-family, non-CA members that rushed in and kept the actual parents from being able to see. I'm sure other gyms experienced the same thing. We greatly appreciate our fans, but I'm sorry - the parents, brothers, sisters, and other athletes from our gym should get priority over others when our own teams are going.

Also, if parents/athletes are GUARANTEED to get the best view of the their gyms' teams by being in the priority group, then many will be happy just being in this group and not planting themselves in a seat all day long.

This is why I felt I had to arrive so early I wanted to KNOW I would have a good seat to watch and prior years had taught me to arrive early. Many parents can't do this, and shouldn't be expected to.While we were in line some were even joking about camping out. I wouldn't put it past some of the fans,USASF and Disney really needs to think this out. If this is to be the venue in the future.

More to come as I think of them. Feel free to add your own.

 

[BlueCat]

This may be a totally stupid question, but how much bigger overall/total is worlds than, say, Cheersport or any of the other big events. Worlds seems to have few overall team, but of course more spectators/parents/etc. Does it all average out about the same? If so, then seems like any of the areas that host one of those events could host words. Personally, seems like it would make sense to have it somewhere in the middle (ish) of the country so nobody is traveling coast to coast... just thinking of places with large event centers/auditoriums .. think professional sports venues... Chicago, St. Louis, Indy, Dallas, New Orleans.. although that last one might be such a good idea considering the whole block party issue..lol..

Worlds is much smaller than NCA, CHEERSPORT, and Indy, but those events are held in appropriate venues, so dangerous overcrowding is basically a non-issue at any of those nationals.

Every one of those events also provide DRAMATICALLY more warmup time for each team. That is a huge issue for elite L5/6 teams. Teams got 10 minutes total the first day. That is insane.

 

[wcdad]

Worlds is the weekend before Derby so coming back home this week with all the events going on and Oaks & Derby this weekend has been a packed 2 weeks! It would be so much fun to have them back to back in the same city - and pretty nice on the bank account for me! Everyone can come to Louisville and enjoy the most exciting 2 weekends in sports (well to me)!

It was 3 weeks of action including Thunder the week before

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Once upon a time they broadcasted the live feed on the TVs in the hotels. My entire team went back to one hotel room, piled on the beds and watched the feed. Something as simple as that could get some people to leave.

 

[nccheerdad]

Every one of those events also provide DRAMATICALLY more warmup time for each team. That is a huge issue for elite L5/6 teams. Teams got 10 minutes total the first day. That is insane.

Are you serious?!?!? 10 minutes to warm-up??? I had no idea that it was so limited. That's just asking for injuries. I can see it for a mini or low-level youth division, but at the Worlds level, that's just ridiculous.

I am continuously amazed at how much these people keep getting in the way of themselves to bring legitimacy to this sport. Name another sport (even though they refuse to call it that) where a team gets no more than 10 minutes to warm-up prior to stepping on the stage of a major championship. It's really unbelievable. This sport (yes, I call it one) should be five times the size that it is by now. Seriously, who is sitting in the office in Memphis and saying that a 10-minute warm-up is fine. My guess is that it is someone who is completely out of touch with what's going on. And if that person really is that out-of-touch, where are the so-called leaders in the Memphis office (you know who you are) actually saying that this is okay?

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Question for anyone. I don't remember because I haven't been to Worlds since 2008, but are teams allowed to practice on the soccer fields behind the Milkhouse?

 

[Ashley]

Are you serious?!?!? 10 minutes to warm-up??? I had no idea that it was so limited. That's just asking for injuries. I can see it for a mini or low-level youth division, but at the Worlds level, that's just ridiculous.

I am continuously amazed at how much these people keep getting in the way of themselves to bring legitimacy to this sport. Name another sport (even though they refuse to call it that) where a team gets no more than 10 minutes to warm-up prior to stepping on the stage of a major championship. It's really unbelievable. This sport (yes, I call it one) should be five times the size that it is by now. Seriously, who is sitting in the office in Memphis and saying that a 10-minute warm-up is fine. My guess is that it is someone who is completely out of touch with what's going on. And if that person really is that out-of-touch, where are the so-called leaders in the Memphis office (you know who you are) actually saying that this is okay?

It was longer on Saturday (and probably Sunday) where you warmed up in on floor with 12 minutes and then moved to another floor where you had 3 minutes (aka one run through). At least in the Josten's. But yes, on Friday for prelims/US Trials we only had 10 minutes.

 

[BlueCat]

Question for anyone. I don't remember because I haven't been to Worlds since 2008, but are teams allowed to practice on the soccer fields behind the Milkhouse?

USASF doesn't have a problem with it. Disney has a problem with it. Sometimes you can get away with it, sometimes you can't.

 

[Ashley]

Question for anyone. I don't remember because I haven't been to Worlds since 2008, but are teams allowed to practice on the soccer fields behind the Milkhouse?

We practiced out there without problem. Doesn't work well for early morning teams since the grass is so wet. In that situation you're almost safer on the concrete, but Disney security was being strict about that at least.