Finals Room at Nationals

[Army Fencer]

I'm curious about what people thought of the Finals Room at Nationals. I'm also curious to see if there is any difference in what spectators thought about it and what athletes thought about it.

I'll get things started. As an athlete, I went to the finals room twice, but was not on the raised strip. I liked that it was separated off and something special, it reminded me a lot of the World Cups that I've been to. On the other hand, I didn't like the lighting; I thought it was too dark. Also, the second strip grounded intermittently the second time I was there, and we had to change strips back to the outside.

As a spectator, I thought I was a very comfortable room with good viewing in most places.

[Peach]

I liked it fine, though it's not the first time we've done it that way. I didn't notice it was too dark on the strip, but I just had cataract surgery so everything looks brighter to me. It was a little silly having the awards platform at the end of the room, and I would rather it had been out in the main room somewhere, because awards ceremonies had to wait until no one was fencing in the room. We fenced the semis at the same time, with one of the bouts on the floor-level strip, but the chairs were all facing the raised strip.

One year we had fancy displays with the fencers' names lighted up; even though by the end of Summer Nationals nobody was bothering to enter the names it was a nice touch and very spectator-friendly.

[Army Fencer]

Originally Posted by Peach

I liked it fine, though it's not the first time we've done it that way.

It isn't. I know that we did it at least back in Tucson at the April NAC. I thought it was a very nice touch. It could also be a key in drawing more spectators and sponsors to the sport, so I'd like to see it continue to improve.

One year we had fancy displays with the fencers' names lighted up; even though by the end of Summer Nationals nobody was bothering to enter the names it was a nice touch and very spectator-friendly.

Those are nice. It makes me feel like a million dollars when I see my name on those things.

[Army Fencer]

I should clarify:

Athlete or ref: Someone who competed in the finals room or assisted in the competition.

Spectator: Everyone else, including athletes who were eliminated in the course of the day.

[introspective]

Look, if you want 'spectators' and stuff that will help you get to Cups, Worlds,and even the Olympics, then you should hear all fencers, there or not. While they can't be specific, they can generally agree that the basic standards may be a good addition in that anything that vaguely resembles the 'next step' is possibily in your favor
Peach - I'm sorry to hear about your cataracts I can't believe it. The last time I went to the OD, he said I was starting to form them,but it would be years before they needed to come out. "Years and Years"

We'll see.

[dberke]

I like the finals room a lot, both as a place for the final bout and for the awards ceremony. However, I would have liked it more if there had been an effort to prevent fencers from camping their equipment in that room. It would have been a bit nicer if there wasn't so much foot traffic from people going to/from their bags.

Also, I would have liked it if they had announced the impending start of the final bout and awards ceremony on the PA system in the main hall. I heard it done a few times, but I think just due to the disconnect of the room from the BC stage, it was hard to coordinate. There were too many cases where the athletes getting medals weren't back in the room to get their medal, and I'm not sure if they were paged or not.

I also agree with the comments in another thread - the announcer of the awards should be someone with some public speaking experience. While I appreciate the work done by the kid who read the results, they really should use somone who has a voice more suited for the task in the future.

Dan

[Inquartata]

I spent time in there as both athlete and spectator, but the poll does not let you select those two options. Ergo, it is you-know-what.

I like it as a spectator, not so much as a competitor ( it's fine if you win, but if you lose it merely emphasizes your failure to be up on a stage in a special room ).

And yes, I realize that those two opinions are somewhat in conflict. Behold the curmudgeon, abstruse and mysterious are his ways...

[Army Fencer]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

I spent time in there as both athlete and spectator, but the poll does not let you select those two options. Ergo, it is you-know-what.

I thought about doing that, but my experience with multiple options is that people screw it up.

Of course, the ever wise and ubiquitous Inquartata would never make that kind of mistake. I should have designed the poll specifically with you in mind!

[fencerwallet]

The finals room was great. Like everywhere else, the first few days there were not enough chairs throughout the venue for athletes or spectators, but they brought more out after the first day or so. Also, the finals room was like 10 degrees colder than the main hall, so it was pretty chilly in there.

With regard to the PA announcer(s), a little more professionalism in this area would have made the award ceremonies a little better. My son's name always gets mangled. One announcer brought laughter by announcing that a fencer was from the "Los Angeles Institutional Fencing Center". Ahh, those crazy fencers.

[piste off]

I was fortunate to watch a few of the finals, and was pretty impressed with the set-up. I liked the strip on the platform, and the idea of the separate room.

Some of the raised strips at other venues I have seen did not have much room to the side of the strip, which you would think would be pretty scary/dangerous to fence on. I’ve heard that some nationals finals were not well attended in the past, and was glad to see that the different room did not seem to have that issue for the events I saw (they had considerable numbers of spectators).

The lighting on the main strip seemed fine, and that is usually something that I am sensitive to (I love good lighting). The other/floor level one seemed depressing to me, and now that I think about it you are correct – the lighting was poor there.

I’ve only been to two other nationals (!), and they were a long time ago (‘82 in NY and ~’87 in Phoenix). Obviously fencing has changed/grown a great deal since then, but this venue surpassed them in spades.

Rick

BTW – congrats on your result AF, knew you could do it!


P.S. If anyone has pictures of the finals room/strip, I would be very, very grateful (please PM me if you do).

[dridge]

Rick is too modest here. He did not only watch bouts, he fenced on the raised strip, and won!

Congratulations, Rick.

Drew

[attackme1]

i agree with fencerwallet 100 percent the anouncer for most of the events could not pronounce some of the easier names. also it was not healthy to have the finals room so cold because after working hard and sweating and walking into that room it id possibly that you could caught a chill from the change of temp.

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by Army Fencer

Of course, the ever wise and ubiquitous Inquartata would never make that kind of mistake. I should have designed the poll specifically with you in mind!

FINALLY, people are starting to come around.

Odd that an epeeist should take the lead, though.

[DonnaP]

We stayed to watch some of the various finals during the course of the event but were frustrated watching athletes have to wait (in one case over 2 hours) to fence a final bout on the finals strip due to waiting not only for the final bout ahead of them to end, but then having to wait while awards were given out for three other events. Not fair to the fencers (or families, spectators, etc.) who made it to the final round to sit and wait for that long especially just for announcements. I love the separate room for the final bout and agree that it should not be used as storage space (much nicer set up in Tucson), and the awards should either follow immediately or be done elsewhere to keep things flowing.

[DJ Apostrophe]

Originally Posted by DonnaP

We stayed to watch some of the various finals during the course of the event but were frustrated watching athletes have to wait (in one case over 2 hours) to fence a final bout on the finals strip due to waiting not only for the final bout ahead of them to end, but then having to wait while awards were given out for three other events. Not fair to the fencers (or families, spectators, etc.) who made it to the final round to sit and wait for that long especially just for announcements. I love the separate room for the final bout and agree that it should not be used as storage space (much nicer set up in Tucson), and the awards should either follow immediately or be done elsewhere to keep things flowing.

Just as a point of order... When we (the bout committee) had many events going into the finals room at the same (or close to the same) time, subsequent bouts were only scheduled for the finals strip if both competitors in the bout wanted to wait for the strip. We kept track of what was going in to the room and the finalists were asked if they wanted to fence the gold medal bout on an available strip in the main room, or wait for the finals strip. We did not force anyone to wait for the strip if they didn't want to.

-w

[contre-Sixte]

Originally Posted by DonnaP

We stayed to watch some of the various finals during the course of the event but were frustrated watching athletes have to wait (in one case over 2 hours) ....

Surely you exaggerate Which event had a 2 hour delay before the final match?

[AndrewH]

I liked the finals room, but I hate the "bait and switch" that always seems to happen. You know.

"Top 8 of men's sabre will be taking place in the finals room shortly"
*everyone files into the room and jockeys for seats*
"buuuuuut first.... the finals of Y14 womens epee!"
noooooooooooooooo......

[lemon__fresh]

http://www.fencingchannel.tv/

has posted some final bout clips (MS WS) on the raised strip, if ppl wanted to see what it looked like

would have been cool to have witnessed/participated.... damn Canada

[xlr8]

Originally Posted by DonnaP

We stayed to watch some of the various finals during the course of the event but were frustrated watching athletes have to wait (in one case over 2 hours) to fence a final bout on the finals strip due to waiting not only for the final bout ahead of them to end, but then having to wait while awards were given out for three other events. Not fair to the fencers (or families, spectators, etc.) who made it to the final round to sit and wait for that long especially just for announcements. I love the separate room for the final bout and agree that it should not be used as storage space (much nicer set up in Tucson), and the awards should either follow immediately or be done elsewhere to keep things flowing.

My opponent and I were given the option of waiting our turn to fence on the finals strip or fencing immediately on a regular strip. We chose the finals strip :-)

I thought it was a very cool setup and it felt great to be fencing up there! However, the fact that the finals strip was in a separate room meant that it didn't draw as many passersby as if it had been out in the main room. You had to know that a bout was happening and peek in to see if it had started yet. At the Richmond NAC this year, the finals strip was at the front of the main room, so you could always look across and see if anything interesting was happening.

As far as the awards, when I was there, I think they were doing the awards right after the subsequent bout. Ie. After we fenced, there were the awards for the previous bout. This worked out ok, because it gave the fencers a bit of time to get cleaned up and put on warmups, etc. before the award ceremony. However, it made the finals room a bit choppy. Probably would have been better to have the finals strip and the awards area separated.

[oso97]

I refereed two bouts in the finals room, both on the raised strip. Aside for having to spend a couple of moments figuring out the blasted remote (its just a TAD more complex than the standard remotes), I liked it.