Re: Registration 2015
 

(Antonio stole my point in the previous post). Most would make the same assumption you did Eric, but after looking at the data, you see that the case is not so. Yes, there might be a larger number of regionals around MAR, but all of the MAR teams currently registered for outside regionals are traveling to much further competitions than the ones that you mentioned. The closest regional that a MAR team is going to is Canada (2 teams), followed by Nevada (1 team) and then Florida (5 teams). None of those are 'handy'.

Re: Registration 2015
 

You missed Windsor, which has more teams from Michigan within an hour drive than from Ontario.

Re: Registration 2015
 

That can't happen before Dec 11 at the earliest.

Re: Registration 2015
 

Both Queen City and Midwest are week 6 events, which is the same week as the IN State Championship. 234 is going to Buckeye, which is a week 5 event (no Indiana events that week)
Central Illinois is the only other "close" regional, and that's week 4, during our Purdue district event.

Re: Registration 2015
 

Inland Empire just admitted a slew (12) of teams today.
Scattered additions (and some subtractions) elsewhere brought the total of teams on event lists up by 30.

Re: Registration 2015
 

San Diego added 3.

Re: Registration 2015
 

Michigan now has details on the 18th district event. Week 1 in Standish. Been stable at 351 teams for a few weeks, so it seems as if FiM is done with adding events for the 2015 season now.

Re: Registration 2015
 

LVR opened up 6 more spots this morning...first come first serve!

Re: Registration 2015
 

Does anyone with inside information know when Arizona is going to pull teams from wait? For AZ West, they show 29 registered teams with 0 open.... but I can't believe that that's the final count.

Re: Registration 2015
 

1492 just got off the wait-list for Arizona West today (or yesterday, I didn't check). Like you said, 29 teams is unlikely to be the final team count. I imagine more teams will get off the wait-list at some point. But, I don't know that for a fact, contact the RD if you want an official response.

Re: Registration 2015
 

2876 teams currently

• 6.2% growth (1.1% less than last year) = 168 additional teams
• 93% retention (1.5% higher than last year) = 2490 returning teams, 218 teams from last year who haven't reregistered
• 12.5% new teams (2.2% fewer new teams than last year) = 360 new teams
• 10.4% resurrected vets (6.4% fewer than last year) = 26 vets who didn't play last year

Re: Registration 2015
 

Mark, have you put together any kind of graph that shows growth and retention rates over the last 5-10 years? Wonder if we'll look back on registration this year as an anomaly or as part of a plateau of overall growth and increased retention (ie the "market" of FRC team development has matured under the traditional regional model). Conversely, does the 2014 season look like an anomaly over the last half-decade?

Re: Registration 2015
 

Here are the team growth and year-to-year retention (corrected for resurrected vets) charts from the beginning.
Retention is the highest that it has ever been.
Really, it's just the new team growth that's down this year. Hard to tell if that's the fault of marketing, outreach or something else.
I wouldn't describe it as a "plateau."

Re: Registration 2015
 

Question that is a little off topic the current subject about growth. How can F.I.R.S.T. close registration when they have not cleaned up their wait list? We have been on the wait list since the first day of registering for a second event. We have not heard from first about the wait list, where we stand or even if we have a chance to get in. We would like to go to a second event. It will really hurt our young program not to. We could register at a 3rd event that has a shorter wait list but will that hurt our chances at our first choice wait list? After they clean up the wait list can you still call and get registered at an event that is not full?

On a side not I have talked to a few teams in our area and it seems that many of them are having a harder time registering for a second event. Is anyone else seeing this?

Any advice on this?

Re: Registration 2015
 

[Shameless plug] The Hub City regional still has plenty of spots open that you could guarantee your team! [/Shameless Plug]