What happens to them?

[Samwaldo]

There's been so much talk about the balls and how they are consistently changed out between matches. What ever happens to these balls? Where'd they go? There's probably 1000's that were removed from games due to wear and tear.

[ttldomination]

I'd say old pieces probably get either stored, disposed of, or recycled.

I know a while ago, some of the '07 game pieces randomly popped up for sale. Not sure why, but probably a last ditch effort to get rid of them before they went into the dumpsters.

- Sunny G.

[DCA Fan]

A lot end up in the trash. Some become souvenirs. If they're not too damaged, teams may save them for demos or off season events.

[tickspe15]

we took balls from our regionals to practice with

[sanddrag]

In 2007 at Championship, what happened was they announced "Free tubes, come and get em!" during the middle of the Chairman's award presentation, and the crowd poured out of the stands and onto the arena floor, almost creating a brawl over the free tubes, and knocking over A/V equipment in the process. It was one of the dimmer days of FIRST.

In later years, I couldn't tell you.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

This year there were a lot of damaged balls. So many that field volunteers started carving them into little sculptures, hats, shoe covers, etc. Most ended up in the trash.

[akoscielski3]

This year there were a lot of damaged balls. So many that field volunteers started carving them into little sculptures, hats, shoe covers, etc. Most ended up in the trash.

Al has a huge museum of Rebound Rumble basketball sculptures in his house. Most prized possession is a sculpture of a Dean Kamen head.

It's rather unfortunate that they got thrown out. I know we would have taken a box or two if they were being sold or given away.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Aaron,
New in the box balls were not thrown out, just the damaged ones.

[Jon Stratis]

At North Star this year, some of the used balls were used again very creatively. We carved them up very expertly and used various colors of duct tape to create Pacman and his 4 ghosts (Between 63 FIRST teams, we were able to find the correct colors to accurately represent them!). We gave each of the 4 refs a ghost, and the head ref Pacman, then played the theme song over the speakers while they all ran around the field. I wish I could find a video of it...

[Jimmy Nichols]

At North Star this year, some of the used balls were used again very creatively. We carved them up very expertly and used various colors of duct tape to create Pacman and his 4 ghosts (Between 63 FIRST teams, we were able to find the correct colors to accurately represent them!). We gave each of the 4 refs a ghost, and the head ref Pacman, then played the theme song over the speakers while they all ran around the field. I wish I could find a video of it...

We enjoyed them at QCR when we found them in the totes.

[M. Lillis]

All I know is that at the end of Championship 2011 there were a bunch of workers stacking inflated tubes. My team and several others went over and grabbed sets of them and deflated them for the flight home. So I presume that they allow people to take the game pieces that aren't valuable (who has a use for a triangle innertube?) because it saves them a trip to the dumpster. Otherwise, I do not know what they did with 2012 balls.