Quote:
Originally Posted by Samwaldo
Apparently the Boston FIRST director said that a new england district is going to be starting very soon, but the only thing is that the regionals in existence are GREAT, and many don't want to ruin that.
A problem I have with the district setup is that although we can compete more it means more travel!
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FiNE:
MA: 57
CT: 41
NH: 30
ME: 10
RI: 5
VT: 3
Total: 146 Teams
Area: 72,000 sq. mi.
Density: .00203 Teams/sq. mi.
FiM:
MI: 190
Area: 97,000 sq. mi.
Density: .00196
Although I expected the densities of teams in New England (NE) and in Michigan to be similar, I wasn't expecting New England to be (negligibly) more dense, particularly given how sparse teams in Vermont and Maine are!
Regardless, I'd been expecting that New England would adopt a district system sooner than this... I think many in the nation expected they'd be next; however, I think the primary reason is what was posted above... the existing regionals are all established, well-loved, and well-funded!
The Connecticut Regional (I still think of it as the UTC Regional) has been around for a long time and has been popular and competitive. UTC has taken care of the bulk of the funding for many years (since its beginning?).
The Granite State Regional has been around since 2003 and has also been both popular and competitive. BAE Systems handles the majority of the funding.
I still think of the Boston Regional as being young, but its now celebrated its 7th year! Hosted at Boston University, it has a very nice venue that can be used due to BU's own generosity.
To me Harrington Auditorium will always be the home of BattleCry rather than the WPI Regional, but that event just finished its 3rd year!
Really, I think that New England would support a district system very well... allowing teams from Maine a closer district (Portland area?), for example. It'd free up dollars that BAE Systems has had to put towards the regional to be used directly on the teams.
Given that there'd be about 8 districts (146 teams * 2 events/team / 40 teams/event), I would see there being one in SoMaine (Portland <-> Portsmouth), one in "NoNH" (Lebanon <-> Concord), one in SoNH (Nashua <-> Manchester), one in the Boston area, one in the Worcester area, one in the Springfield area, one in the Hartford area, and one in the Bridgeport area. I'm guessing the FiNE championship would host about 50 teams in the Boston <-> Worcester area.