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Matt 18:20
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Very Cool !. I will be wearing my FIRST Mentor/Coach pin, maybe we can spot each other at the conference !

Marcos

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Man, I wanted to go when my brother first started talking about it months ago, but now darn! :)

Have a nice God filled week guys!

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Do you think that more teams will be able to go to the championship when it moves to St Louis?

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Probably not. The Championships are already limited to four divisions (due to Einstein) of a max of about 80 teams each. More division [fields] won't fit into a sports stadium, and more teams per division will drastically cut down on the already low number of qualification matches per team.

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FIRST has definite plans for expansion. The need for expansion was included as part of the bid package. The floor of Lucas Oils Stadium could easily hold 6 or more fields. It's floor is much larger than the Georgia Dome. I can only assume that St. Louis was also asked about expansion plans.

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But unless there is some shake-up of how Einstein works, there has to be a binary (1,2,4,8,16) number of FRC divisions. Since recent concerns over the available bandwidth in the 802.11 spectrum have come up, I sincerely doubt they'd ever go to eight divisions at one event. Thus, we end up with the same four divisions we've always had.

Floor plans for six field areas makes sense: four FRC divisions, one FTC dual-division, and one FLL/Einstein combo.

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I agree, only because it is more of a central location then Atlanta.

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The problem with Indiana is their poor Public Transit System. Atlanta has MARTA, St. Louis has a light rail system, Indianapolis has a bus system that runs buses once an hour. Until and unless the city of Indianapolis fixes this issue, I don't see FIRST moving championships there.

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Well, it's St. Louis for the next couple of years. I just don't think that my team will be going to Atlanta so often simply because we have to travel for worlds now. :P

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Indy takes care of that buy running special shuttles and buses for large events. We host the annual FFA convention and that is much larger than the championship.

But it doesn't really matter because it won't come up for re-bid for at least three years.

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there is alot of teams that are on the west coast that can't go because of the cost of airfare to atlanta. St. Louis is a great location... right smack dab in the middle of the US

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As someone who until 10 days ago had never been to St Louis, here's some advice: Book your hotels very close to the event (to the southwest is best, it's the "nicest" part of town). Do not take the lightrail at night. Don't even bother going out at night unless it's near the nice part of downtown.

Do the Arch. It's pretty awesome. The Royal Dumpe dinner theatre is hilarious (unless you've got an enormous stick up your rear end). Also.. Pappy's Smokehouse.

Also, watch your credit card receipts, and check your statements when you get home, though you should do this no matter where you go. People on our team got their CC numbers stolen at the Chaifetz Arena foodservice.

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Definitely visit the Arch. While you are there (probably waiting for your trip to the top), see the movie Monument To The Dream.

I lived in St. Louis for 15 years. I rode the light rail system at night many times without issue, for trips to the Arch, to Cardinals baseball games, downtown restaurants, etc.

As a clarification: the 2011-2013 FIRST Championship venue is downtown, near the Arch. The St. Louis Regional FRC venue (Chaifetz Arena) is on the campus of St. Louis University, a couple of miles west of downtown. A hotel that was convenient for the St. Louis Regional may not be as convenient for the FIRST Championship, and vice-versa.

Sorry to hear about your problems with Chaifetz concessions -- I will make sure the St. Louis Regional Planning Committee hears about that, too.

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I think if they can run 8 divisions then they should since it will make the finals on Einstein the same as they are at the regionals and divisions. It will also decrease the chances that the same teams are in alliances every year.

Plus in my option the more teams that make it to nationals the better.

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Atlanta is the busiest airport in the US. It's far cheaper for west coast teams to fly to Atlanta than St Louis, even though St Louis is closer.

The logistics of such a scenario make it nearly impossible. Where will FIRST find 2x the volunteers they currently have? There aren't that many qualified people.