[James3245]

This development, should it come to pass, will have a major negative effect on Intermountain West programs. Idaho weighed in and Utah is another example. FIRST and NASA invested a lot of resources to help develop Utah teams beginning in 2010. The teams formed, many are thriving. What FIRST and NASA envisioned has come to pass. Of course, teams soon learned that to keep developing requires the inspiration that comes from competing. The more the better. But it isn’t easy to find places to play the game out here. Within an 8 hour drive there are only three events: Utah, Colorado, and Las Vegas regionals. The closest off-season event requires an even longer drive to California. (yes, we are working on setting one up in our region) The problem has become more acute as districts form up. Many teams from Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado attend LVR because it is the closest option for a second regional. (granted, travel is not as bad as what Hawaii and many international teams face)

By attending LVR the last three years we forged important ties with great teams from whom we’ve learned an immense amount. We bring home this knowledge and have done our best to build our own region. That is how FRC programs develop - they learn from more developed teams. But to test your team’s skills you need the opportunity to compete. In less densely populated areas, it can be surprisingly hard, and expensive (money and travel time), to compete more than once a year. To lose chances to play with and against top tier teams greatly compromises the goals of FIRST.

LVR is a superb event, as many teams can attest. Every year has seen an increasingly tough, and inspiring, line-up. Last year registration filled in less than 24 hours when it opened for second regionals. LVR has been an exemplary regional, extremely well run by volunteers (thank you 987), and top-notch field personnel. It meets every core mission goal of FIRST.

FIRST expects a lot of event organizers, whether district or regional; it is too much to ask every team to pay a high entry fee per event and then require the event organizers to run the event without access to that income. The LVR situation is exhibit A of the flaw of this model: a great regional that fulfills every mission goal of FIRST now apparently in peril, and not for a lack of paying teams.

The good news is that with to its model of high event fees combined with reliance on volunteers and sponsors, FIRST has built up an impressively large reserve from which it can draw.

LVR is vital to teams in the West - FIRST needs to support it, even if it requires investing a few coins from the war chest.