There is probably a good game design/programmatic reason not to do this but I wanted to share this idea for discussion anyway.
Instead of the standard lobby we are used to with the player's names in boxes I suggest making a mini game instance where all ships are tethered to a sky dock and the players can run around freely. The sky dock would have three areas: Red team's dock, Blue team's dock and the spectator platform. The airships of each team would be tethered to the dock in the configuration the captains had set for them.
To change airships a player would have to walk down the gangplank of their current ship, cross the dock space and walk up the gang plan of a new ship. To change teams the player would have to walk by the spectator platform and on to the other team's dock. Invisible walls would block players from doing things not allowed in the current lobby system. Such as joining a full ship, or team.
This would allow players and captains to flaunt their ships and costumes during the lobby phase. New players could walk the ships and be given instruction prior to match start.
