Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmummert
I've been reading this thread on and off and one thing i haven't seen mentioned about the pros and cons of
High School based events and Covention center based events is the mention of events ( a regional or district) held at a local University.
Since i don't live out there i can't speak for you local folks...but back here
in the east we attended the Virginia regional which was held at VCU and the
Chesapeake regional which was held at the University of Maryland for the first time this year.
The DC regional was also held for the first time at George Mason University this year.
I'm sure if i look them up there were others.
VCU's Siegel center is almost right in downtown Richmond....so there
wasn't a lot of room for it when it was built...but it was. Universities
tend to have larger spaces for their uses. The only downside i could see
is a University might turn down a First regional or district if it conflicted
with their Basketball schedule that time of year. Also some Universities
charge more for the use of their venue than others...but in some cases
i think its cheaper than renting a Civic center type venue.
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The regional started at UNLV at the Thomas and Mack Arena 10 years ago and we stayed there until venue rates went over $60k (now at $80k and that is with UNLV discount. We moved to small convention center with rental rate of $6k plus portable stands costing around $14k I believe. Community college facility alternative is no good. We lowered our regional cost significantly over the last 3 years. The problem continues to be difficulty getting the community to contribute more $. We added a professional fund raiser to our board and fund generation prospects look better now, however, FIRST wants a guarantee right now that our regional will be 100% covered by local sponsors. You can't guarantee sponsor pledges will come through as many of you may know...