[Chief Hedgehog]

The conversation in this thread concerns me. I know that Las Vegas is a completely different nut to crack - but how is FIRST looking to hedge their bets against something like this happening in other areas?

Obviously the District format is preferential in areas that have many established FRC teams. But those are not spread evenly across the country. My concern (selfishly) is - what happens in Minnesota? If this can happen in LV, this could happen in a place like Duluth, MN.

The reason I state this is because LV is dependent upon tourism, conventions, etc. Now that it is 'safe' to have conventions in LV again, a lot more money pours in from entities that can out-spend FIRST. I don't know if this is the case, but I do know my wife's company is holding a convention back in LV after a 5 year hiatus. And there is no way that FIRST can outbid my wife's company.

Take that to a smaller scale - like Duluth, MN - if tourism takes an upswing as the economy stabilizes, what happens to FRC events that took advantage of low cost arenas that can now claim a premium? Now companies and conventions have the capital to take advantage of low cost arenas and outbid FRC events.

I do not wish to see MN lose regionals - and we are not ready to go to the district formula (even though we now have 186 teams). We don't have the volunteer levels to support districts. Maybe a move to St Cloud or Rochester is in order?