Tom...a nice guy?
 

O.k. here goes. As far as Dean buying an island, there are islands off the new england coast that are bought often (Dean already has one) there are also hawaiian islands and islands near canada and in the Florida keys. If he were to buy another island it would obviously have to be sizeable. He would have to have some sort os hotel arrangement, maybe buildings minus the room service, yes that means everyone would have to pick up after themselves. He could build the necessary buildings for housing competition and other needs. As far as transportation to the island, he currently has a helicopter to his island, this would not work for FIRST, but there are many things which would need to be looked at before deciding on one. For instance: the size of the island may be able to accomodate a runway if the island is far off shore, a ferry could transport to a nearby island, etc. you all see where I'm going with this. The registration fee would most likely go up but would it be worth it? The other thing which should be considered is how many people a team should be allowed to take to compettion with them. Smaller teams would allow for more teams. I don't know if any of you took the servey from disney but one of the questions sticks out in my mind, how likely would you be to attend nationals were it on 2 separate properties? That would be a tough one. How would they split between the properties?
C~ya,
Carolyn

Plus, if he did buy another island, how long would it take to get everything built?

On the plus side, the stages can remain up year round.

Well, to build the hotels would take maybe 8 or 9 months, I'm basing this on the length of time it takes in Williamsburg, the same probly goes with everything else. It would take awhile to get paper work finalized and to get occupancy certificates for all of the buildings. Field building would not take any longer than usual. All in all one season would have to pass by in order to have the island ready. That's not too bad really. Disney could be let in to the island deal as a sponsorer and have a FIRST interactive park. That would take care of much of the want for publicity as everyone seems to be bent up on. The Disney part won't be finished as soon as the rest, but that's o.k. It would need to be a large island, but it could work if FIRST wanted.
C~ya,
Carolyn who likes to work on problems of this nature! ;)

...
 

I don't mean anything by this, but isn't the idea of buying an island a little outrageous?...

Re: ...
 

a little off the deep end at least
but its an amusing conversation, and so what if its not realistic?

what happens when we outgrow that island?

Its simple. We buy a small country.

~Tom~, who thinks that this idea has probably gone far enough.

Why?
 

Dean has already bought one island. Besides it's something to think about in the off-season
C~ya,
Carolyn

But Dean already has a small country. He seceded(sp?) from the nation, remember?

-Ed "Really likes the idea of buying another country" McDonnell

LoL, interesting/weird question time - If you could chose any country on Earth for Dean to buy, which would it be? Personally I'd choose Jamacia, just because I like warm weather and beaches.

~Tom~

...
 

Can't buy my country, foo [j/k]....I would probably say New Zealand, or some country in the sticks of the world...

simple answer!
 

Australia!:D I love the country. It's an island too. There is everything there, desert, beach, and ski resorts. Can't go wrong and can't outgrow it either.:p
C~ya,
Carolyn

I would take New Zealand and have my bot sponsered by the All-Blacks-
just think of showing th ebot off as the mascot of the team in front of a reana audience of 120-150 thousand fans

yahooo!

(they are the national team in Rugby)


Dahl
team497
Rugby Player (prop)
Virginia Rugby

Airfare for Australia/New Zealand is NUTS, though! And its not like you can get around it by Greyhounding it or Amtraking it down there.....you have to fly. Plus, customs would be a nightmare...

But I do like the idea ;)

The thing that would really be funny is seeing the looks on the faces of the airport staff when they find out thousands of kids from America are going to be headed through the terminals and invading the airports. The customs officers seeing the tools and other gear in the luggage through the X-ray machines. Quite possibly FIRST could strike up a deal with Quantas (national Ossie air carrier) for the FIRST teams. Robot shiping would be the outrageous fair. On another side of the coin, here's a way to limit that many people have been looking for.
C~ya,
Carolyn