Hey FIRST - We're going to need a lot more regionals!
 

Have you noticed how fast the regionals are filling up this year?

I think this is due to the need to win a regional to get into the Championship. Of course, many teams usually go to multiple regionals anyway. But it seems that more teams than usual are signing up for multiple regionals. And next year when so few teams are pre-qualified, just watch the regionals fill up even faster!

I think there will be a lot more teams that will want to sign up for 3 regionals, especially next year. We will need a lot more regionals or FIRST will have to limit the number of regionals a team can attend, to maybe 2. Let's see what happens on Nov 14 when registration opens up to a third regional. This may be the first year that all regionals are filled to capacity. If not this year, then next year for sure, unless we get a lot more regionals. I say we need at least 6 more regionals next year.

This new Championship eligibility criteria might be just what FIRST needed to increase the demand for regionals even more, thus exposing more cities and thus growing even faster. What do you think?

Of course, this would all mean that more teams will have to make last minute travel arrangements, but that is for a different thread.

Raul

I'm not sure you exactly need MORE regionals, just bigger venues for current regionals. for example, the J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional has moved this year from Rutgers University to the Sovereign Bank Arena. This allows for more teams to work harder at one regional, because your chances for alliances are smaller with more teams. I think larger regionals might inspire teams to work harder for a better bot than to create new regionals, thus shrinking the competition.

just my two or three cents.

YSara

I think FIRST is planning a big push for regionals in 2005. One of the main components of forming a regional in the past has been having enough local teams to support the regional. Given the fact that many more teams are attending multiple regionals in the past few years, I think FIRST is letting up on this requirement. I have no direct evidence for this but based on Rochester and Brazil I find it to be a likely occurrance. So I expect to see quite a few new regionals next year (come to Rochester anyway!).

Matt

One of the main concerns with regionals is MONEY. The local area must come up with the funds to support their regional. As you know it is becoming tougher to raise support for each team. Just think how tough it is to raise $200,000.00 US dollars for each regional. Growth is great but it has its problems. We must all be there to support FIRST the best we can.

I believe there was a discussion a few weeks ago about "Mega-regionals" in FIRST. This could be the answer to said problem. You can already see how these "Mega-regionals" could easily fall into place, with various regionals upgrading to bigger venues or accomodating for more teams. Ex. the New Jersey Regional now will take place at the Sovereign Bank Arena and the Chesapeake Regional has accomodated for 54 teams this year. Could these "Mega-regionals" be the answer?

The Sovereign Bank Arena may not be a long term site, JNJ regional HAD to move because Rugers university didn't won't to give up their new basketball arena to FIRST in 2004. Rugers is hoping for a NCAA spot in 2004.
I wouldn't be surprise if JNJ Regional move again in 2005. Sovereign Bank Arena is a very expensive site to rent and it is in a "not so nice" area of town. (and this is coming from a Brooklyn person!)
:rolleyes:

Mega Regionals
 

It looks like we could use a Mega Regional in the east. There are only a few spots left at the now bigger Chesapeake Regional (6/54). the already HUGE Canadian Regional (3/78), or the St. Louis Regional (3/46). The only "open" regional is the Pittsburgh Regional that has 18 of their 43 spots still there. There are lots of openings out west where many regionals still haven't filled up. The biggest problem I see is finding a space large enough to host these competitions that isn't allready hosting the NCAA tourney.

Should there be another regional in New England this year? I know I could use one...

My backyard is always open, it could hold a field and you can have the pits on my street. Oconomowoc would welcome you with open arms. :cool:

Re: Mega Regionals
 

so are you saying you DONT want Rutgers to do well in basketball just so you can use their stadium? ;)

wouldn't it be nicer to move to bigger and better venues? i'm quite excited that J&J is going to be at sovereign bank, even if it IS only temporary. Just think, maybe they can host a competition at the Tweeter Center or the Continental Airlines Arena.

Re: Hey FIRST - We're going to need a lot more regionals!
 

The main problem I have with that, is if you think about it... your robot really isn't used much as it is. Unfortunatly, unless you attend many offseason competitions (which there is only one close enough for our team to attend each year), your robot only gets probably less than an hour or two of actual gameplay each year. To limit your regionals even more would be worse, ESPECIALLY since teams need to win to go to the "Championship" With what Sara was saying, I don't really know if I agree with simply making the regionals bigger, all that's going to do is give you even FEWER matches, what happens if your robot breaks and your out 2 rounds? If you have 6 qualifying matches that'll kill you, whereas if you have 10, your chances are a little bit better. I'm really thinking that after all of the things happening this year (I'm just not worrying about Megaregionals yet until everything's official) teams aren't going to really have much will to go to the Championship and are just going to stop even fundraising for it, that's what we have done already. I really think that there isn't much that's going to fix this since there are so many teams in the league, up north I really see offseason competitions being the main "fix" for all of these problems, but down here, there are so few offseason competitions. 1083 hosted "Robot Rodeo" this year, which invited everyone in Florida, and only 16 teams showed up, a few didn't come, but for the most part there just aren't enough teams down here to keep a nice flow of having multiple offseason competitions going. I think we need to try to look more past what FIRST can do, because they're hitting a threshold, they have an exponential growth of teams, and still have the same people for the most part working at FIRST trying to handle it all, so I think the solution (whatever it may be) comes down to what teams themselves want to coordinate, and we just need to work on that... I think offseasons are a near-perfect way to start. Just my 2 cents.

I definitely agree. My team was thinking about doing three regionals this year, but it looks like that won't happen. We weren't able to get registered for Midwest Regional, which was a first, as it usually doesn't fill quite as fast. Now, every regional in the Midwest, with the exception of Pittsburgh (18 spots) and St. Louis (2 spots) is full, and those two conflict with Great Lakes. I know I've heard many people complain that "the Midwest doesn't need another regional," and while yes, we do have a lot here already, we're going to need more or bigger regionals just as much as anyplace else. It's a universal problem that FIRST is going to need to solve.

My solution: keep the number of basic regionals about the same, and add four or five "mega-regionals" like we've been discussing. Make it so they don't conflict with the regular regionals (say, put them all in week 5) if possible, so everybody gets a shot at going to one. Doing this will take some of the pressure off of the regional events, and will also give a fun, large event for those who can't attend the Championship.

That sounds like a really good idea, especially with the number of teams that are dissapointed about the new championship qualification standards. You would need to see to it, though, that the mega-regionals are spread out evenly and fairly.

Re: Re: Mega Regionals
 

I HOPE RUTGERS DO WELL!:D

JNJ at the Continental Arena would be great! You definitely can run a Mega-Regional there.
:)
(and think of the tailgate party we can have in the parking lot too)

Re: Re: Re: Mega Regionals
 

The New Jersey Regional at the Continental Airlines Arena would be amazing. That is definitely the New Jersey venue suitable for a Mega-Regional.