Also relevant is the fact that it is going to be extremely and unnecessarily difficult for teams to line their robots up to score the 24" goals in the back from 12 feet away through other robots and field structures.
Hahaha, as a 5’3" coach, I know this pain all too well.
A potential problem that could come from the driver stations being so close is drivers and coaches being able to hear all the strategy being exchanged between the opponents during a match. So if a coach is advising the driver to score in an undefended area, the opposing driver may better overhear them and head over to block.
But I do like the idea of being able to exchange banter during matches when your going against a team your close with.
Theres a sensor for that 
Agree!
It was very crowded when 2 teams standing one side already
I agree that they should be rapped around. There are already going to be people there when loading. I aso foresee a problem of alliance partners hitting each other when rushing to get match loads to the robot. I realize that this could be stopped by being more carful, but people get so caught up in what they are doing it is hard to pay attention to everything that is going on around you.
What if…we had like…bleachers for the driver station 
But then you’re forcing every single event to have bleachers for the driver stations, it’s much easier move the driver stations than to add bleachers…
There are no match loads in Toss Up.
People have asked several times if they can provide things to stand on for short drivers and coaches playing on raised fields, and the official response has been that having team members standing on a raised platform would be unsafe.
I agree. This past year, each alliance had 96" for four drivers and two coaches to stand in, which was often times rather crowded, due to coaches needing to introduce match loads, etc. However, it ended up just barely working if the coach stood just behind and between both drivers.
Unfortunately, this year alliances must fit the same number of people in a 60" space. That is less than 2/3 the space from last year. I am rather worried about this, especially since drivers that accidentally step out of their alliance station tape may be bumping into drivers on the opposing alliance.
I am very curious as to why it was decided to have the alliance stations the way that they are, with how many drawbacks we are seeing, especially since there are so many benefits to having them on the opposing left and right sides.
~Jordan
Sorry I ment when people went to manipulate the robot in autonomous or if the robot has not left the tile yet.
You are correct there are no match loads
Don’t fix what isn’t broken :eek:
I think it’s pretty clear that the reason why this has been done is to allow a good view of the field for spectators. If you look at appendix A of the manual you will see that the crowd view is side on to the field from the blue side. Presumably the thinking behind this is that if the crowd view is from either the goal end or the hanging end it will be harder to see what is happening.
Given that one side of the field needs to be unobstructed, the only fair place to put alliance stations is on one end of the field. If you used both ends or one end and one side then the two alliance stations wouldn’t be the same as each other.
Agreed! If you do the (quite simple) math, there are between 8 and 12 people on a SINGLE side of the field. That gives between 1.5 and 1 foot of space PER PERSON. During Sack Attack, I often found myself being pushed around to the side of the field, even with just one alliance on one side. Also, there wouldn’t be the problem of having to move back and forth to the alliance tiles during autonomous.
Toss Up is a game that is built laterally, and the current position of the driver stations limits the driver’s ability to judge distance and the location of field elements because you are looking parallel to the movement of objects on the field. It’s almost like watching a drag race from directly behind the cars, making it hard to judge who is in the lead or how far off they are.
TL;DR:
I think the current driver station setup is way too crowded, and it also will make the the gameplay many times harder.
See, that’s part of the challenge this year. And if you’re really concerned about it being hard to position your robot to score, make a feedback system using the speaker or LEDs. There are ways to make this easier.
The issue here is not compensating for standing on the far side of the field. The problem is the lack of space for the drivers and coaches, which is too small.
So have one driver per robot. Or leave out the coach. Or both. Some teams like to have two drivers and a coach, but if the driver stations are legitimately too crowded you can make that determination. I know we shouldn’t have to, but just think of it as another part of this year’s game.
Well, we had to deal with a 15 inch height restriction this year essentially, so might as well keep adding restrictions to truly determine who the elite are. Maybe I’ll recruit my next coach based on size.
It can be Yoder and Yoda. 
hahahaha!
feel kind of bad after posting that last night and i hope no one took it too seriously, my post was mostly sarcastic.
The height limits implemented by the GDC have led to some interesting designs as a result, and while the move is annoying right now, I think it can be beneficial in the long run and prevent design convergence.