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Originally Posted by northstardon
I'm wondering...do you think there would have been any less recognition or interest in your team's success if, after winning a "championsplit" event in April, your team then went on to defeat the winning alliance from the other split event(s) in a subsequent summer competition (the kind of "battle of champions" idea that FIRST has seemed receptive to considering)?
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Two answers to that: First, that we can tell them that we were in front of 20,000 spectators has huge impact every time I say it. That wouldn't be the case in a tail end event. Second, it already costs us over $20,000 to travel to St. Louis, of which half is airfare. And we travel with only the team members that we need to compete. That cost is a key reason why we don't go to IRI right now. Adding a second national event is very expensive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by northstardon
I agree with the idea that sponsors might be more willing to open their corporate wallets when a team qualifies for a world championship, rather than when a team gets a wait-listed invite to a world "festival." But if this is the case, then wouldn't it be preferable to have a system that would give all 800 teams a chance of "chasing a true world championship?" Wouldn't it be better to give all 800 teams a chance to make that stronger sales pitch to their sponsors, rather than just the 400 within a tiered system? As long as there was a way of bringing the best of the best together to battle it out in a post-chamionsplit event, that possibility seems covered.
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First, I think it's critical to have a single event to arrive at a single champion if it requires traveling out of state to any event. A district championship model would greatly reduce those costs, so that option might work. As I said, travel costs are a huge barries to multiple events.
So given that a single event is critical, it's not possible to have 800 teams at a single event. I agree with FIRST on that point. So given those two constraints, it's not readily possible to allow 800 teams to compete for the championship on a single year. That's why we've proposed different formulations for a two-tiered championship.
The post championsplit championship undermines the single most attractive aspect for FIRST of publicizing its event to the broader culture--that 20,000 people are screaming in the stands watching Einstein. The media LOVES events with large vocal crowds. Competing in high school gym in front of several hundred spectators just doesn't cut it.