[Donut]

Originally Posted by Foster

I like the concept of "here is a district, if there is one nearer to you, opt into that one".

This to me is the simplest solution for assigning districts. If we're not going to allow teams to pick what District they are part of then it should be determined by the closest event, and while we still have the regional/district divide then the closest event determines if you are in a district at all. FiM already exists which may require some grandfathering, but I don't want to see teams cut off from close events due to artificial district boundaries like state lines.

The first two years I was with 167 our closest event would have been the Midwest regional at 220 miles away. Last year with the addition of Central Illinois that is now the closest event at 150 miles. If that event goes to districts I would want to see the team included in that district. If the district was based on artificial state lines, say the Illinois/Wisconsin district to take advantage of the population density in the Chicago & Milwaukee area, then we would lose our 3 closest events. Putting Iowa into a district with Minnesota isn't much of a consolation as currently the closest event is 300 miles for more southern teams.

A geography based mapping could lead to some oddities like a team changing districts as new events are added, but I'll take that over being outright barred from nearby events. It also poses an interesting question; when there are no more regionals and Missouri, Illinois, and Minnesota have all gone to separate districts, how do you determine which one a new event in Des Moines joins?