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Originally Posted by Phyrxes
I went to a meeting at our regional this year about Districts, *hat tip* to the visitors from MAR who also attended and gave some personal insight.
The National Capital Area is currently looking at the district model but we were told it would be 2015 at the earliest. For reference this district could absorb 3 Regional Events (DC/Chesapeake/Virginia).
Given the proximity between MAR and the parts of the possible National Capital Area the idea of playing across district lines surfaces again.
At that meeting coaches were very divided on their initial perceptions of going to the district model so it may be an interesting ride.
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The topic of districts in the National Capital Region sure seems to be a lot more complex than I imagined. At the Virginia Regional, there was a lot of animosity from groups of people who liked keeping the format unchanged in Virginia. There are solid reasons for this: 5 of the 6 teams who qualified for Championships out of the Virginia Regional only attended the Virginia Regional. VirginiaFIRST and the Virginia Regional are the second oldest 501c3 and event pair, only behind the FIRST in Michigan and Great Lakes Regional, which is now the Michigan State Championship. Still, it is important to note that some teams in Virginia, including <1000 level teams, do not think they can sustain having to pay double to get into CMP. 422 has provided financial assistance to teams in our area just to get them a bus to St. Louis.
However, my issue with maintaining the status quo in our region is that by not acting as soon as possible to make this change to the competition structure in the area, we are actively hampering the progress of the program. In Virginia this year, teams only played 8 qualification matches. If you didn't make eliminations and were a veteran team, you essentially forked out $625/match, which is something people at the Virginia meeting seemed to be apprehensive to accept as something bad.
At the Washington, DC Regional, which is common ground for teams all over Virginia, Maryland, and the district, there was near-unanimous approval at the meeting, citing the low costs, equal or fewer days out of school/work, and in general, a remarkable return on investment. Why that message did not come across well to some Virginia teams remains a disappointing mystery to me. There is money for teams in the states and district if they just go look for it.
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Back on the topic at hand
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If the National Capital Region is to switch over to districts by the 2015 season (which I still expect), there will be an interesting situation where pretty much the entirety of the northeast will be in the district system. They could theoretically all play under the same point system but have some restrictions (the limit on how you can submit for DCA, and you can only attend your local championship), but the whole area could serve as a test-bed for inter-district play.