HA! That's a laugh. FIRST was a god send for WDW. It filled hotels with 15,000 kids durring the slow period and inflated attendence figures for Wall Street. FIRST will go back to Disney. Simple as that.

Go and look at the polls out there now, Epcot is winning by over 50%.

From what I know from some engineers that I know that have talked to some of the people from FIRST, 2 reason as to why FIRST left Disney this year where
a: because of cost
and
b: because the could not find a date that both FIRST and Disney would agree on....
I dunno, just what I heard!

Here is the real scoop
 

The location of nationals for next year has not been decided, but among the possibilities are Epcot, the City of Orlando, Reliant, and several others. Dave Brown of FIRST told me the competiton was put out for bid. The FIRST competiton was not held at Epcot this year because of scheduling conflicts, not because Disney hates FIRST. (Greg Hale of Disney is on the FIRST BoD!)

Honestly I don't know where that garbage comes from,
but don't state as fact things that are mere speculation.

There are problems at any venue - Texas this year was great - but if the weather hadn't cooperated, it wouldn't have been quite as much fun. The FIRST events have become so large that accommodating them is a big job, that very few venues can handle. (The Team Hammond mentors were suggesting Vegas, but I don't think that will happen!)

Just chill, and feel the thrill.

I think that the rose bowl would be a great place for nationals...there is plenty of room, it's california so the wether is always mild (tho the tropical climate of floria is REALLY nice) and if they use tents they will be able to adjust to accomadate more teams. The only problem with that would be the lack of outside activities(ie:disneyworld, six flaggs)

Re: Here is the real scoop
 

Greg Hale's a really nice guy. It sucks, somewhat, that they made him Chief Safety Officer of the Walt Disney Company.

Anyway, might I suggest y'all look into the Anaheim Convention Center? It's a large, indoor facility, it's located in a tourist-driven economy with plenty of hotel rooms and convenient transportation, and it's across the street from both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. :)

To me, that seems like the perfect shift away from Epcot.

ok one question... at epcot the pits and fields were all out in the parking lots in tents right?

we have got engineers here right?

why wouldnt they just make the tents bigger?

even better! :D

Re: Re: Here is the real scoop
 

I'd happily settle for that!

yeah, why dont we all get there a week early and build nationals with all the engineers we have? I'm sure if you have that many creative minds collaborating you would end up with some pretty genius and efficient ways to save space. j/k, this probably wouldnt be practical.

I'm afraid the saying...great minds think alike is not entirely true. It would be a majorly huge mistake.:D

i think if dean can build a 2 wheeled balancing scooter he could think of a way to fit more ppl at epcot

i think it wasnt at epcot just because of timing and scheduling, houston could ever compare with the nostalgia and atmosphere that EPCOT had.

The tents did get bigger, from 1999 to 2001 the tent size almost doubled each year. In 2001 it was mentioned the pit tent could hold more than 3 747s lengthwise. The stands on Einstein could hold 12k+. The only size complaint I had was with the seating for the division fields.

Exactly, also think of all the cash we bring to Disney world. At 5 days in Disney I easily spent 150$+ on food. And spent plently of money in the parks and stores. Teenagers are a prime market for disney.

As for the bias on location. To be cnetral we'd have to play somewhere is Kansas. If a team has to fly 3 hours to get somewhere why not fly 4. It could be argued that Nats should be held in NH or CN because of the rediculously high density of teams in that area. Florida is by far centralized but it meets therequirements of FIRST; size, hotels, recreation and climate.

personnaly i think it would be pretty cool to have it in California. Florida is nice and Texas is ok but you have to admit that California would be pretty awesome. I am sure they have tons of places that are large enough to have the Nationals at.


just my thoughts.......