[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

Move the Championships to Indiananpolis, IN

Since Indy was nearly selected back in 2010, it would be one of the stronger candidates to succeed STL whenever FIRST moves on.

I lived in St. Louis for a long time, and have enjoyed going back for CMP these past several years. I've also enjoyed going to IRI at Lawrence North HS these past several years, so in my imagination Indy is an ideal place to play robots. While I have a personal bias toward the outstanding FIRST volunteer corps in St. Louis, I know from many direct experiences that their counterparts in Indiana can match or exceed any others, anywhere. [And yes, I include Michigan.]

However, the logistical challenge of CMP is an order of magnitude (at least) larger than that of IRI, or any other event Indiana has hosted so far. Is downtown Indy a good place to walk around, near the venue that FIRST would use? Is there metro rail from the airport to that part of town? Enough hotel rooms? I know those were important considerations when St. Louis made its pitch to FIRST, and I think we all have seen how CMP growth has strained St. Louis' capacity.

TL/DR; does Indy have the capacity to handle CMP?

------

edit@Foster: Unlike Indy, St. Louis population figures divide into city (~300k) and county (~1M), so the per capita figure for stadium improvements is not as high as you calculated. In any case your main point is correct -- sports teams demand and often get funding concessions that are not justified by their impact on the community.