Quote:
Originally Posted by apples000
That's unfortunate.
I really love the extra playing time given to teams in districts, but don't you guys think it's important to help out the teams that are located where there aren't a million district events nearby? In my opinion, FIRST should be about providing awesome and powerful inspiration to every team that's in FIRST rather than exploiting more crowded district regions to get tons and tons of new teams started. FRC doesn't really feel like the "varsity" program it used to sell itself as in moments like these. Slowly, we're removing different pieces of the FIRST experience like team travel (once we have districts, how often will 254 be leaving california?), large exciting venues, and instead focusing on expansion. These growing pains really are inevitable, especially for a unique organization like FIRST, but shouldn't we worry about getting our current teams and events all set before we go expanding and district crazy? Nobody will want to join a program that can't support its own teams.
Sorry for the rant, sometimes I just feel like the focus is too much on expansion.
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emph. mine
The thing is though, those are just a few pieces of the overall FIRST experience and, arguably, ones that many teams do not see as-is in the regional system. I'm sure someone can get actual numbers and facts on this, but most teams do not 'travel' extensively (extensively being defined as 254 going to Waterloo; not a NYC team traveling to Philadelphia). Also, some districts are in venues just as large as some regionals, even sometimes bigger (I for one hate 'convention center bleacher'-style events).
In the end, 'going district crazy' is not happening in areas it doesn't need to happen, and the 'pieces of FIRST' that it's influencing are things that, in many people's eyes, are bigger issues than the ones you stated, ie. more play for less pay/cheaper events overall.