Future Championship Location?
 

WARNING:
The following is only true in the imagination of a huge FIRST/Vikings fan, but here me out!!!

1. Minnesota Legislature passes a stadium bill for the Vikings (2012)

2. This bumps Saint Louis into the hot seat for a one-way ticket to LA (2013)

3. The Rams move out, making Edward Jones Dome financially unsustainable (2014)

4. The stadium is destroyed, leaving FIRST without a venue for its following season (Spring 2015)

5. FIRST Leaders want to keep the Championship in the midwest, and start looking for a new venue. (Fall 2015)

6. The new Vikings Stadium opens (2016)

7. FIRST Execs reward the growing state with 4 regionals (including next-season's "Double DECCer" in Duluth) with a Championship event in the new Stadium

8. Some odd-shaped game piece gets lodged in the stadium's retractable roof, throwing off Tom Brady in the last play of Superbowl LI, giving the MN Vikings their first Superbowl!

Ok....so #8 is probably never gonna happen, but with the Ram's Stadium getting old, do you think its possible FIRST could go north? -if not, where else?thoughts?

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Minneapolis in April.... I'll pass....

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Late April is actually a pretty nice time in Minnesota (70's and not really humid)... But maybe thats my inner Eskimo talking....

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

But... Are the mosquitoes out in force by then?!?!? :eek:

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The stadium won't be adjacent to the convention center, which makes it a nonstarter.

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I know what MN is like in April I live 4 hours away. It gets in the 70's occasionally. They really just need to go back to Atlanta, in all the places its been Atlanta has been the best and FIRST will be hard to find a better place with lots of things to do that is within walking distance.

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I think Indy makes another push to get the event.
Of course we could always go back to Atlanta.

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or Disney :p

Maybe then we could also bring back ESPN. I think these games would do awesome live on ESPN.

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There will be no convention center attached in the current rendering and there is no provision for one in the bill that passed. I'm with you, bringing champs so close would be awesome, but Hell's freezing over the day Minneapolis hosts CMP.

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I don't think this has ever been mentioned!!! FIRST should build their own venue!

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and be forever scolded for wasting sponsor money

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Considering it'd only be used, what, 4 days a year (Maybe 7 if they host a regional too)? That's one heck of an investment for a week worth of use per year.

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I believe it was brought up last year. The general consensus was that $100,000,000 was too much money to build a stadium that would only be used a handful of times per year.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Just another burn on the Minneapolis idea... St. Louis's contract is up after next year. First will have to announce the location for the 2014 year not too long after then(if not at the event). I can't think of anything that could realistically hold the event here in the northeast, but I don't mind St. Louis(though FIRST feeds us volunteers, so I don't have to deal with the city and 10,000 other starving students trying to find food during an hour-long lunch break), and I wouldn't mind atlanta again. I do think that FIRST is keeping their eyes open though. I can see it heading out toward the west coast eventually(though it would make it a little more difficult for FIRST to get people/supplies to the venue), though I can't think of any good locations out there.

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Because the Cowboys stadium isn't big enough to hold everyone :rolleyes:

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Didn't someone announce at SVR that a venue for FIRST had been approved in the San Jose area? It's not big enough for a championship event obviously, but It's going to be used for kickoff, workshops, practice, and regional events.

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It has a lot of seats, but I don't believe there is any adjoining building to provide enough floor space.

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It was announced as a practice facility, not as a venue for holding events.

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I have thought the same thing the whole past year. Also as long as we are talking Minnesota. Does any other MN team think MN FIRST should take Mall of America Field (The metrodome) as their home venue and call it The FIRST Dome
The only teams that use it are HS and NCAA baseball teams. We can move them.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

I Believe if they open it up for Robotics Championship, a regional, and then FIRST Robotics conferences throughout the year. Have it host an Sponsor trade fair and an Andy Mark conference along with lending it out for concerts and highschool and ncaa events it would find very good use

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Obligatory Georgia team answer:

COME BACK TO ATLANTA!!!!

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

I don't think people have a proper understanding of how much it costs to construct a domed stadium and convention center.

The America's Center and Edward Jones Dome cost a combined $556,000,000 in 2012 dollars. Not including whatever expansion and upgrades were completed since they opened.

Even if you assumed that FIRST would only need to construct a facility 1/5 of the size of the venue in St Louis, Atlanta, Indianapolis, etc, the cost is still ridiculous.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Try finding the real estate to build a Championship-scale venue in a suitable location. Due to the structure of CMP, the venue would need to be located near a major airport, an abundance of hotels, suitable attractions and amenities, and accessible public transportation connecting these resources. That basically limits to developed urban areas. Do you know how much land costs in urban areas?

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

This where I add my annual and obligatory "Go Back to Disney, no matter what it takes" statement. There I did it. :D

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I would love to be able to MARTA to the Dome and be back in my dorm room for dinner. ;) :cool:

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Indy. It's perfect in almost every way. Seats? Check. Space? Check. Central? Check. Good weather? Check (no worse than ATL). Large INTL airport? Check.

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Weather?

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Large? Indianpolis International is ranked 39th in America based on number departures and 49th based on number of passengers. I've found St. Louis to be hard enough to get reasonable flights into, Indy would be even worse. There are plenty of reasons as to why Indianapolis would be an amazing city to host the Championship, but the airport is not one of them.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

ATL weather was just spotty that one year with the random tornadoes in the city, at least, as far back as I remember. Other than that, it's been the usual mix of rain/sun for CMPs.

- Sunny G.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

While I won't dispute these, I will add that Indianapolis added a brand new terminal a couple years ago; it is much nicer and easier to navigate than the older one.
Indianapolis is also the second-largest FedEx hub in the world (second to Memphis, the headquarters). This could ease the burden on donated shipping.
I also won't dispute the fact that Indy's mass transportation system leaves much to be desired. Having said that, the downtown is vibrant and pedestrian-friendly. Thanks, 2012 Super Bowl!
Plus, Indianapolis has hosted the unofficial FRC championship for years.
Unfortunately, since Indianapolis is so popular with conventions and sporting events, it is booked years in advance. I'm not sure what timetable FIRST uses for booking events - I tend to think it's a year or two in advance at most - but it may be the case that when they do schedule the CMP, some venues, Indy and around the world, may not be available.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Come back to the SOUTH!!!!!! we have beautiful weather all year and you can't beat disney or "HOT"lanta (ATL) LOL :cool: Both cities have huge airports for teams to fly into and if their not cheep enough Orlando has plenty of surrounding HUGEEEE cities to accomodate the teams (WPB, Tampa, FT. Lauderdale, Jacksonville..... ETC.)

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Well, I've been to Championships when they were are Epcot, Houston, Atlanta, and now at St. Louis. Out of all of those places, I'll take St. Louis, hands down. I hope FIRST & the city of St. Louis work out a long term deal to stay there.

Speaking for myself only...

The event venue is just as good(better in some respects, not so much in others) when compared setup in Atlanta. The Dome in St. Louis is slightly larger than the one in Atlanta. I disliked the long 10 minute walk from the PITS to the Dome in Atlanta.

St. Louis is centrally located in the US. I live near 2 major airports and it's easier & cheaper to get to St. Louis, than it is to get to Minneapolis or Indiana.

St. Louis is a more friendly, helpful city.
Completely my own personal objective view point.

St. Louis is cheaper than Disney or Atlanta.
This includes Air Fare, Hotel Rates, Food prices.

St. Louis has lots to see and do, more than Atlanta, and most of it is FREE.
For examples...
FREE - St. Louis Zoo on par with the Bronx Zoo, or San Diego Zoo
FREE - St. Louis Science Center
FREE - St. Louis Art Museum
FREE - St. Louis History Museum
FREE - Monetary Museum (Washington University IIRC).

The Metro System, buy a weekly pass for $23.50 go anywhere you want as much as you want. I did all the site seeing above without a car, using the Metro system.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Wow I get to tell Karthik that he's wrong.

Indianapolis has the advantage of not being dominated by any one airline. Not being a major hub makes our passenger traffic look small but because of that flights are reasonable and easy to find. We even get folks driving here from Cincinnati and Louisville to get reasonable flights. This is one of the reasons we book many large conventions (the FFA convention makes FIRST look small.)

Our biggest problem is access from the convention center to the dome. There is no way to get from one to the other without using stairs or an elevator. This makes getting a 140lb robot from pits to the playing field problematic.

Also I fully expect FIRST to exercise at least one of their option years for St. Louis just like they did for Atlanta. With districts not being really expanded until 2014 and until a whole new qualification system is in place, I would be surprised to see a RFP for a new venue until after 2014.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

One thing that I think most of you need to understand is that when looking for a place for the championship things that are for the convenience of teams (all the things discussed here, flights, hotels, attractions and so on) are not necessarily FIRST's primary considerations.

They really have to consider their costs for hosting the event, that means what are the hotels willing to pony up, what will the local government do for them and what corporate sponsors they can exploit (and I mean that in a good way)

So if you want your town hosting the Championship I suggest you start working on the cash, not how nice your venue is.

PS this is not a put down of FIRST, this is how they have to do business anything else would be irresponsible.

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

Vikings against the Pats... no shot, just saying ;).

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I maintain that #8 is my favorite.

"Whoa, did a zip tie just fall from the ceiling?" *BOOM* and he's out

My vote is for Champs in Hawaii. But that's just me. Though admittedly it won't make much of a difference for drive team/pit crew - I hardly ever saw daylight at any regionals/Champs. Sigh. A girl can dream though.

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No kidding! The Pats would be creamed! :)

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Not to shoot down an idea but this would be just plain painful to plan out. I don't know if there's a venue big enough for a Championship event. Even if there was, the logistical challenge of getting 400+ teams to Hawaii by plane is painful to imagine.

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There is no venue big enough in Hawaii to host the FRC Championships.
VEX absolutely yes......FRC no.

Getting 400+ teams here logistically is no biggie.
Its the cost, and yes, we know from experience.;)

Re: Future Championship Location?
 

FIRST on a boat it is then. :rolleyes:

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FIRST CHMP/Hawaiian cruise.

them cruise ships are pretty big :)

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Water Game!

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Although champs no, I always wondered if one could pull off an FRC event on a cruise ship....?

One day, you never know?

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Before we end up with a thread about using a cruise ship...This has been done before.....http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ht=cruise+ship

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All teams must sea kayak down. I call it the FIRST Fitness Act ;)

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That thread is dead but. Some ideas that were missing, FIRST gets the US Navy to give them a retired carrier. FIRST then refurbishes it to have Einstein on the deck and the others in the belly. The carrier would stay docked and teams would move in and out of the "arena" as needed. Think of it like Nvidia's LAN parties