Us Finals, What A Mess!!!

[juscheerthatisall]

OK. Quick trip to their website (and by quick I mean less than a minute) solves this mystery. It is NOT $35 for Sunday. It's like almost all 2-day comps, and you pay either for one day or two. It is, just like JulieP said, $20 for one day and $35 for two, which is pretty standard pricing for a major National. I'm sorry you guys are having a bad experience but I gotta say that is pretty normal pricing to me. If that's expensive to you, don't ever compete in Chicago - I can't tell you how many times I've paid $20 for little tiny one-day comps that my cp didn't even go against anyone.

As for the sportsmanship - again, I have to go with JulieP - it's parents' and coaches' responsibility to teach that. The EP is supposed to promote competition.

I really like US Finals, and I, for one, am really glad our gym decided to go this upcoming year.



***Side note: Seems like every day of my life someone makes the wrinkeld-nose face at me and says "Oh...you're not married?" like it's a disease (I'm sure I'm just oversensitive to this, but married people...please. We single chicks know we're not married and don't need to have it pointed out at every available chance. ) But I have to say, competition day is the one time I get to be like :cheering: "NOPE! Not married!!! So that'll be just ONE spectator fee for me, thanks! Take THAT, married people!"

I have gone to this comp many times and always enjoyed it. This year was the absolute worst. Apparently there were 200 more teams and 4000 more ppl than the ep stated so instead of kicking us all into the streets the fire Marshall's and police decide to take over the comp and run it like a nazi concentration camp. I was yelled at for my kids stretching in the hall, held for 20 min in a crowd of about 400 ppl, watched a coach go outside to help a kid find her mom ten be told she couldn't come back in (rationale"I don't know what to believe, you guys have been telling me all kinds of things and not following instructions all weekend"). Kids missed awards because the fire Marshall posted they were cancelled, which really translated to put out of the ballroom, and moving it to the main hall meant starting it at 10pm. Horrible!! Hopefully it will still be there for you to go next year but I have a very large feeling they will not be invited back.

 

[STUNTMASTER]

You know as gym owners we hold the key to the cheer companies destiny or demize. If we continue to support those company who don't care about the presentation of their business then they will continue to treat us like aother dollar bill. We have to stick together and voice our opinion in writting as a group of hard working coaches and gym owners who not only have the love and passion for the sport of cheerleaders but for our customers pockets as well. So quality in exchange for money won't be an option for us. We have to demand quality for our $$$$$$.

 

[12stepCheermom]

it came to my attention that at the providence us finals, a team that was announced 1st, in fact, was not the 1st place team. the judges had forgotten to deduct points from the final score, that being said, organization is key. it really is mind boggling that they can't get it together. not only did this 1st place team believe they came in 1st, receiving banners, trophies, jackets, etc. but then to later find out that the team in 2nd actually should have gotten the recognition is ridiculous. i feel tremendously sorry for both teams. believing you did all you could on the floor to only leave with a trophy and not get that 1st place recognition is NOT okay. in return all they received was a "sorry, our mistake"​

I won't get into details but US Finals is not alone in awards session and scoring screw ups. They had a massive one in our venue at all levels that went all the way through the virtual championship. We managed to have one team get ridiculously screwed over no less than four times from the time they competed through the virtual championship. It was like Keystone Cops in spankies.

Its all good. It will only make us that more fierce in year four.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

I have always loved the U.S. Finals but this year was an absolute mess, and I would bet it's never going to be allowed to be held at the VBCC again. 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. 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

 

[CoachMandiCF]

Although the event wasn't as smooth as I'm sure everyone hoped, I have to say I saw some of the most disgusting behavior from parents & coaches towards the event staff. Not only the VA Beach Convention Center staff, but the US Finals Staff as well. While I was waiting in line for score sheets, a parent came up to the table, threw her stuff across the table & demanded the EP. The parent was told that Tina was on her way down. This parent then started hysterically sobbing and then lunged and attempted to HIT the US Finals Worker. All with her gym's name on her and coaches standing around watching as if this was ok. No one said a word so I stepped up and told her she needed to calm herself down and not make a scene and that someone in charge would be with her shortly. All of this was over a team (not even her own child's) being in awards and she couldn't see it because there were too many people in the ballroom and the Fire Marshalls regulated.

Then, on Day 2 while waiting for music in the ballroom, another group of coaches to a team going on a few after mine comes up and lays down all over the floor, blocking the aisles. The staff asked that they please move to the back as they could not crowd the aisles. The staff even suggested that they could move behind the black curtain and wait until their team was about to take the floor to come to music. The coach flipped out and cussed the man out. And by cuss I don't mean just one little thing. She said so many F bombs I think I even got red faced. I was more embarassed for her program than anything else.

I do like the changes they made for Day 2 in terms of awards. Sometimes EP's won't even make changes but I'm glad the US Finals took into consideration what happened Saturday and took measures to make adjustments.

 

[bobbijean13]

Rhode Island wast any better.

 

[XTREMElyfierce]

I think what they should do is, when you get a bid, that bid informs you on which us finals you are attending. (I.E. you get a bid in hartford, ct and so you attend US finals in providence) that way, the over crowding of fans and attendees of the event is put to a minimum

 

[supabarkz]

i was at the us finals in providence. it went pretty well over there; it was our first year going to us finals in providence. years previous, my team has gone to the one in va beach. 2 years ago was also a mess at that competition; like you all said it cost too much and it was way too crowded. however; the one in providence was awesome! it was probably one of the smaller of the us finals, and it was great seeing a different array of teams than the usual ones at va beach. also it went very smoothly, the people there definitely knew how to run it. i recommend this us finals to any team!

by the way, does anyone know the results for senior small 4.2 at va beach? a couple of my friends are on a team called force all stars and i would like to know/see/hear how they did, they won't tell me!! (bad sign? haha)

 

[tral22]

US Finals in Cali is only a one day comp.. i wish it would have been 2 days though i find it weird that in other states it's a 2 day comp but in cali it isn't..

 

[Ashley]

US Finals in Cali is only a one day comp.. i wish it would have been 2 days though i find it weird that in other states it's a 2 day comp but in cali it isn't..

It's a 2-day comp in the sense that there are two days of competition, but every team competes only once. If I remember correctly, the younger teams go on Saturday and the older ones on Sunday.

 

[tral22]

It's a 2-day comp in the sense that there are two days of competition, but every team competes only once. If I remember correctly, the younger teams go on Saturday and the older ones on Sunday.

ohh that would make more sense then, but if i remember correctly all mini youth senior and level 5 teams performed on saturday..

 

[CoachMandiCF]

ohh that would make more sense then, but if i remember correctly all mini youth senior and level 5 teams performed on saturday..

The Tiny, Mini, Youth & Junior/Senior 1 teams went on Saturday. Everyone else including dance went on Sunday

 

[tral22]

no in cali for us finals i was senior 4 from az power and i went on saturday...

 

[tral22]

The Tiny, Mini, Youth & Junior/Senior 1 teams went on Saturday. Everyone else including dance went on Sunday

no in cali for us finals i was on a senior 4 team, from AZ Power and we performed on saturday.. it was most likely because not as many teams attended as in other states for this competition so they only needed one day of competition im guessing.

 

[Eunique Priest]

I had a great time... I feel as (Coaches/Program owners) We too have to make sure we are on our kids staff and parents alike... Its beautiful out maybe a lil chilly... But walk through your routine outside... per usasf rules next year do your hair and make up before you get to the comp. RESPECT ALL! It starts with us and the to the EP and EV... They seemed rude at times but our comp in VA was going to be shut down... due to way to many people and way to many hard-headed kids and parents... I had a few #shrug of shoulders on judging/comments/deductions... lol but thats just me.... (Just looking for judges to be consistent all the way around... Even if it helps or hurts my program... Don't kill my one team and when my other fall or bobble a stunt.. and say ZERO deductions lol.... wayyy to funny......