Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

They do.
FIRST approaches cities that have adequate facilities and meet their standards, and ask them to place a bid on the event.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

LA, NYC, Chicago (even Indianapolis and baltimore) are already heavily actvie FIRST areas. In these areas its almost as if FIRST is becomeing too popular with too many teams and not enough sources of funding. New teams are forming and dying right away or forceing well established teams either in massive cut backs to their programs or forceing them to die out. Does anybody know how many rookie teams actually registered this year and never even made it to compeition?

Its just a double edged sword for FIRST because realisticly for 2007 if they go to Indianapolis, it's so close to so many teams it would certainly help a lot of budgets on travel (I know my former team from CT would be e-mailing every CT team asking to share a coach bus or something).. However with the hype of FIRST in the area it may prompt a lot of school districts to look at the comepition and see how big FIRST really is, and essentally may hurt other Indiana teams with more compeition for sponsors, resources, mentors, etc..

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

That, and it must be hard finding facilities, after all April still has the NBA in session, NHL (if they ever return), and even MLB teams are already in the regular season (domed baseball fields would be a great host).

Those factors alone realistcly limit the options for facilities since major cities have NBA, NHL, and MLB teams playing in the same venues FIRST would be interested in. It may not neccessarly be FIRST saying "we don't want to go to LA" when the arena is saying "The Lakers might be in town, go somewhere else"

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

Yes, but football fields across the US are open for usage. NBA courts and NHL rinks don't have enough room either.

But then again, there is an issue with larger events that would bring more money that would want to use the same football field at the same time as Nationals.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

As much as I'd like to have the Championship here in Southern California, I'm not sure it would happen anytime soon. The chief reason is a lack of suitable venues. You'd think with the Rose Bowl and Coliseum we'd have it made. But those stadia, and every other venue in Southern California that would be large enough is open to the sky.

We generally have such perfect weather that our large venues don't bother with the expense of roofing. I can't think of a single venue in Southern California that is larger than a basketball court and has a roof. Add to that the fact that April is the tail end of our rainy season, such as it is. So having some way to keep the water out of the robots is essential.

In general, I think the colder areas of the country are atually in better shape for this sort of thing. Maybe Seattle?

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

There are probably several in the form of warehouses and convention centers and the such, but these places usually lack a viewing "stands" area or the height to put one, not to mention the "pizazz" and layout of a real arena type place.

Even if you could guarantee no rain, the hot sun would probably be miserable. Wherever it is, I say it must have a roof.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

Seattle would be cool. I'd be all for that. They have Safeco field which has a retractable roof, which would work.

I see FIRST sticking to a more centralized location though. While it would (finally) give us west coasters a break, it leaves the majority of teams with a more expensive trip.

Also, as I remember it, the hotels in downtown aren't really within walking distance of Safeco.

Maybe some day we'll see Nationals out here :)

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

I don't think this will happen. I believe that it might spark new teams to start, but when the local business in the downtown areas see the amount of people that this attracts, and the coverage it is able to obtain, I think there is a better chance of companies supporting the struggling teams. I don't think the concentration of teams should be a high priority when choosing a venue. I believe that there should be some in the area to help raise awareness and find attention, but the number of teams is not a strict requirement.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

When you get a snowstorm closing the airports and ruining transportation at the Nationals on a big scale just once the 50 degrees in Atlanta will look pretty good. This thing needs to be held in the South where it is warmer. Sorry Midwesters but it isn't a treat to travel there when Orlando is available.

Of course this debate may be a done deal anyway from what rumors are saying....

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

i would love to see it at the sky dome in Toronto not only is it a good sized arena but i think it would cool to have a finals in Canada

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

It would be cool to see them in Canada but I doubt that will happen for awhile.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

Do we know that Orlando is available? Perhaps it's just plain not feasible for many various reasons.

Considering 90% of the event is indoors, it's not the biggest disaster if it's a little chilly. The team wrapup party has been outdoors since it's been in the south, but who says it MUST be indoors?
It would do those southerners good to see a bit of snow once in a while.. :) Could be a first for some people! Though, snow isn't super likely in Indy in April.... Other midwest and northern states, definitely could be snow....
Can't wait to find out where our next destination will be.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

Well, you do raise a good point there. To that end, a place like Kansas City or even Omaha (there are no registered Nebraska teams, last I checked) would be ideal. However...

I'm more inclined to agree with Ben. Obtaining sponsorship is quite difficult. Most of my team's sponsors this year were extremely local businesses (either in one of the two towns served by our high school). If there were large corporate sponsors it was because mentors on the team worked for these companies. I don't think we had a single corporate sponsor outside of the Worcester suburban area. (That includes large companies like Rohm and Haas, Raytheon, and National Grid -- the reason we were able to get sponsorship from these heavy hitters was because they have facilities in the Boston/Worcester area, already sponsor other FIRST teams, and had our mentors working in their facilities.)

To perhaps support your original point, local businesses don't traditionally have as much money to spend on charitable giving than large corporations. It was difficult to get monetary sponsorship. A few of our local sponsors contributed their products -- a Northborough print shop donated the labor involved in printing our team shirts, a Southborough bakery donated muffins and coffee for our Saturday morning meetings -- things like that.

On the other hand, the unfortunate truth is that businesses need to be approached. Bo the CFO is not going to wake up one morning and say, "I think the Conglom-O Corporation should sponsor a FIRST robotics team!" Sponsorship is obtained through cold calling, student involvement, and mentors approaching the people holding the purse strings at their places of employment.

That in mind, I doubt that having a Championship Event in any given city will benefit all but the most local of teams. You might get some suburban team benefit (towns around the city such as Carmel, Lawrence, and others -- it's been a few years since I was in Indy, but I almost took a job there so I was looking for apartments in its suburbs), but I doubt highly that having the Championship Event in Indianapolis will result in every Indiana business scrambling for a local team to sponsor. Furthermore, I don't think teams obtaining sponshorship will have any more difficult of a time doing so than they already do. Finding money is going to be a hard and undesirable (but necessary) job no matter what.

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

I like Toronto as a city, and I'd also like to see more non-US teams. I think, though, they'd need to move the Mississauga Regional to elsewhere in the GTA if the Championships were to be held there. (Though, the Peachtree Regional is near Atlanta...)

I don't think we'll see a Canadian Championship Event anytime soon, though. Most teams are from the US, and you have new travel concerns introduced such as customs and currency exchanges. (Okay, yes, Canadian teams and teams from other countries currently deal with these every time. Non-North American teams even deal with language barriers.)

Re: Championships location from 07 and onwards
 

Weather should not be the deciding factor. It canchange too much. If its cold, its just something that will have to be dealt with at the venue. Its not like the competition takes place outside.

Example:
It was 80F in Atlanta one day, then 50F the next. I was so cold at the team party that me and and a group of team members ventured to The Omni hot tub. In Detroit, It was pretty warm (mid-70F) before completion. The sunday after, I flew home to 6 inches of snow.

Price should be a deciding factor. Personally, I thought Atlanta was really expensive, atleast food and stuff was. The Omni was priced decently for a hotel of its type. Plane tickets from my area were also reasonably priced.

Personally, I'd like to see Championships in Chicago or on the West Coast (San Fransisco for instanc). Even New York City would be a pretty cool place to go. (I know venues capable of hosting this event probably aren't available in the cities i like though).

I think it would be cool if FIRST presented a list of possible venues and allowed everyone to vote, and then they would have an idea of where the general FIRST population would like to have competition.