Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
You shouldn't be asking if it solves inequity of travel costs. You should be asking does this make it worse most teams. There will always be inequity of travel costs and Districts can either exacerbate it, be approximately neutral, or be better. I'd like to see us at least make an effort to be neutral for the majority of teams.
I guess, more importantly, we shouldn't be whining about inequity of travel but instead we should be figuring out how to help teams most negatively impacted by these changes.
|
There will perpetually be some give and take with district event locations. MAR is commonly in a situation where the population center of teams is not what many consider an acceptable distance from most events. It appears the case may be that Chesapeake districts may bias too much towards the population center of teams, which can stunt growth and potentially damage team presence in other areas. There is probably a litany of reasons that the Hampton Roads area isn't stacked with FRC teams like it probably should be when you consider the industry there, but a reason that wouldn't be out of the question would be the lack of an official FRC event in a top 40 MSA, a distinction it shares with around 5 others, a situation being rectified this coming season.
I think Chesapeake's setup is more favorable to all teams than other district setups when it comes to balancing distances and therefore travel for all teams, but adding an event around Charlottesville / Waynesboro / Staunton / Harrisonburg / Winchester or along the 95 corridor in Central to North Central VA would be a solid move. I imagine a "tentative" bias towards locations in NoVA stem from the willingness to work with facilities that have been used in official and unofficial capacities in the past. For instance, I hope the Patriot Center stays on as a district location because while it was a pretty pathetic regional location it could easily be the best district location in the system.