[GaryVoshol]

Expanding the District model wouldn't necessarily have to be done along state borders. That happened to be a convenient size unit to use for Michigan in terms of number of teams and number of regionals replaced. Future championship events that lead up to the World Championship - they could be called Conference Championships to distinguish them both from the CMP and from regionals - might be multi-state and might divide some states. For example, a Pacific Northwest Conference might consist of WA, OR and BC. New England might be a Conference. MN and WI could be another.

If there are more Conference Championships set up, there could be a method set up so that teams could choose events outside their immediate area on a space-available basis. Perhaps they could even choose what Conference they belonged to.

The biggest problem with a District/Conference/Championship model is what to do about areas that don't have a high enough density of teams to support multiple district events within reasonable travel distance. There would have to be some accomdation for outlying areas like HI and Isreal which can support just 1 event now. That doesn't even consider other countries outside US and Canada that may have only 1 or 2 teams.

In addition to team density, there has to be a big enough volunteer base to support the districts. Michigan has enough FIRST-crazed people that volunteer in key positions (like FTA, referee, lead queue) in multiple weeks. In places like OK and MN that have a huge number of 2 and 3 year old teams, are there enough people with some history and experience to volunteer in key roles?

It's a big task, but if FRC expands to "every" high school as has been envisioned, there eventually needs to be a plan to accomodate 5 to 10 times as many teams as we currently have.