The Junior College I do game stats at, the campus with the gym used to be an old All-Girls school. The gym is on the second floor, with the locker rooms slightly below gym-floor level and the stands (eith room for maybe 130-150 people) are above the locker rooms. As a result, the scorers table is about 8 feet off the court. And with the close quarters, I've had to work games with avid (and sometimes rabid
) fans only a couple feet away.
We haven't had too many problems since officials know they have to look up for eye contact with the game crew, but one particular game, the visiting team coach was complaining that we were intentionally ignoring his subs (Gee, if they don't let us know they are down there, we can't buzz them in). So for the next game, I taped a sign on the wall to remind subs that per rule, they are required to give their number to the scorer (and thus get our attention).
Supposedly, there are plans to construct a new gym, but with recent budget cuts and crunches, I think that may be on hold for the forseeable future.