Obetz, getting in and out, parking and tickets.

[psycho_dad]

I did not have that bad a problem, but I heard a lot of complaining and saw a bunch of people making things worse because they can't follow instructions, or maybe they are just more important than the rest of us.

There is no way they could have it like they used to where the majority of people stay for all the races. Parking capacity is an issue. Very upsetting to see people yelling at people just trying to do what they have ben instructed to do. They need some sort of off site parking and shuttle busses. Took me 40+ min to park. Just under 30 to get out to main road. We had a couple supporters that missed the girls race because they were in traffic to park for over an hour. Others said their tickets were never scanned.

I was ok only watching D2 last year. Not so happy about it this year. Anticipate being less happy next year. Would I be part of the problem if I stayed for D1, or came early for D3?

I got in and out fine, but I gave myself an hour. Were the complaints I heard just poor planners?

 

[madman]

Similar experiences here. Bought tickets for kids to come watch and they were never scanned.

I think there is too much time between races. The energy ebbs rather than builds from race to race. I think it's in the interest of the kids to reduce the time between races and in the interest of spectators only interested in one race to keep it like it is. I don't think this has an easy answer even if it's easy to have a personal preference.

This facility is so much better than Scioto or NTR that I'm willing to put up with all of the negatives that could be stated about today. I expect it will get better every year at Fortress Obetz where things only seemed to get worse at NTR.

The weather today made it especially easy to enjoy the experience.

Thanks to all who make this event happen and were able to secure this facility for the meet. Your efforts are much appreciated.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

I stayed at home, parked my butt in a chair, and bought the NFHS monthly subscription instead of a ticket. While not the same as being there, it fit my level of interest and the amount of time I wished to commit to the meet rather well. Incidentally, I had no trouble getting into the chair but had trouble getting out of it after consuming some Wendy's that was purchased during a food run I made during the break b/w DIII and DII.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

Similar experiences here. Bought tickets for kids to come watch and they were never scanned.

I think there is too much time between races. The energy ebbs rather than builds from race to race. I think it's in the interest of the kids to reduce the time between races and in the interest of spectators only interested in one race to keep it like it is. I don't think this has an easy answer even if it's easy to have a personal preference.

This facility is so much better than Scioto or NTR that I'm willing to put up with all of the negatives that could be stated about today. I expect it will get better every year at Fortress Obetz where things only seemed to get worse at NTR.

The weather today made it especially easy to enjoy the experience.

Thanks to all who make this event happen and were able to secure this facility for the meet. Your efforts are much appreciated.

The time between races in the same division seemed OK because they didn't have to rush through the awards presentations. The time between divisions is probably a major drag if you're on site, but it sounds like it might be a necessity for purposes of getting fans out before the next batch comes in. FWIW, I have not been to Fortress Obetz yet. NTR was no picnic exiting following the conclusion of the meet. Incidentally, I wish they would rotate the order of the races, and I wish the same for the state track meet if we go back to holding multiple divisions at 1 site.

 

[Running Man 101]

Similar experiences here. Bought tickets for kids to come watch and they were never scanned.

I think there is too much time between races. The energy ebbs rather than builds from race to race. I think it's in the interest of the kids to reduce the time between races and in the interest of spectators only interested in one race to keep it like it is. I don't think this has an easy answer even if it's easy to have a personal preference.

This facility is so much better than Scioto or NTR that I'm willing to put up with all of the negatives that could be stated about today. I expect it will get better every year at Fortress Obetz where things only seemed to get worse at NTR.

The weather today made it especially easy to enjoy the experience.

Thanks to all who make this event happen and were able to secure this facility for the meet. Your efforts are much appreciated.

They didn't scan anything from what I could tell. I wonder if they were looking for a certain number of tickets to be purchased and got that number. Decided not to enforce it, which would be hard to do there I think.

The course was really nice. Much better than August.

 

[A. Vandelay]

I stayed at home, parked my butt in a chair, and bought the NFHS monthly subscription instead of a ticket. While not the same as being there, it fit my level of interest and the amount of time I wished to commit to the meet rather well. Incidentally, I had no trouble getting into the chair but had trouble getting out of it after consuming some Wendy's that was purchased during a food run I made during the break b/w DIII and DII.

How was the NFHS video? Did you get to see much?

 

[Mr. Slippery]

How was the NFHS video? Did you get to see much?

Keep in mind here that the NFHS is only the one distributing the feed, not the one producing it. I saw about as much as I saw the first time I was at Scioto Downs. The feed was arguably better last year. The video is just whatever was being shown on the stadium's video board. In many cases, they were slow in switching from showing ads for the OHSAA corporate partners to showing video footage when there was something on camera to show (runners entering stadium, medal presentations, etc). Last year, the camera was positioned in a way that you could see a little bit of the race on the SE portion of the course. That wasn't the case this year. After last year's meet, there was talk of installing another camera for this year to either show more of the footage from the NW end of the course, but that didn't occur.

The video feed was about 3.5 to 4 minutes behind the live clock which was the case last year, too. I'd have the video feed going, but I usually followed the live results to 2 miles and then ignored it, so the live results wouldn't spoil the finish.

Here's why I'd do it again, regardless of how imperfect the feed might have been:
- How much more of the race would I have been able to see if I was there? Enough to justify the added time and expense of attending vs. staying home?
- What the heck was I going to do to kill all the time between divisions? The time between the races in the same division went more quickly thanks to the awards presentations. The time between divisions was more than an hour in some cases after the awards from the previous race were presented.
- The feed only cost $11 for the 1-month subscription. That's less than a ticket to the meet. I'm just a fan these days with no deep rooting interests, so it was a nice alternative to attending.
- I also didn't have to drive 2 hours each way and sit in however much traffic to get parked and get out of the facility.
- I could do other things in between races that I wouldn't have been able to do if I attended the meet like make a food run or enjoy certain beverages.