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Originally Posted by Dunngeon
The best part about the district model from my perspective, was that we were able to bring upgrade packages throughout the season. Increasing our competitiveness as the season progressed. This was likely helpful to many other teams, which overall increased the competitive nature of the PNW this year.
My biggest problem with districts, is how much school I've missed over the last month. Between 1 day for OSU, 2 for DCMP, and 3 for CMP, it's too much. Especially in the middle of AP study season.
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To be fair you only missed one more day of school vs attending a single regional and winning your way to CMP at that event. Note when selecting the schedule for the PNW district events we specifically offered to have Sat-Sun events and none of the venues wanted that schedule, they all wanted to do Fri-Sat events.
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Originally Posted by tkell274
From my understanding officials where approached in Texas about joining the district model and they were uninterested about that idea because they are able to stay financially feasible with the regional model and are able to produce very good teams from it. That said I would love to see Texas join the district model and match FIM for a total power house district that would significantly boost the excitement of elimination matches at championships.
PNW and NE FIRST both sent a lot of teams to eliminations this year because of the district model and I can't wait to see even more areas adopt it and make the competition at championships that much more intense and fun to watch.
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The reality was that in the PNW the cost of the first year of the district system was not that much higher than running the Regionals of the past, particularly the 2011 and 2012 seasons. That included purchasing fields, fleshing out our AV equipment to have enough for 2 fields, Pipe and drape, floor protection, pit power distribution system, and the materials to build the road cases to transport all of those items. Now that the initial significant capital expenditures have been made the cost in future years will be significantly less than running multiple regionals.
With the change to the district system some of the initial registration, and all of the 3rd event fees go back to the district, so overall in the long run it becomes much more financially viable and sustainable than multiple regional events. Though if the district chooses to rent things like pipe and drape, floor coverings and pay an outside vendor for catering and AV production the long term savings may not materialize or be as significant.