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Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum
I was wondering at what point does an event (regionals specifically) become too large an get split into two smaller events? What is the biggest regional this year, in terms of attendance? What are the criteria for splitting a regional? I'm wondering because the Denver regional has it's typical 50ish teams registered, which seems to me like a lot compared to other regionals, but it has had this number of attendees for 5+ years. I was just wondering what it might take to create Northern and Southern Colorado Regionals. IMO Colorado would need to produce another 5-10 teams for the 2018 season to potentially have two regionals in 2019 but I am by no means an expert.
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The typical cap is 66 teams--last year, L.A. and San Diego (and SVR, I think) all had that cap, and only the Week 1 in that bunch didn't fill it. That isn't a hard-and-fast cap, but it seems to be "what works the best" in the case of regionals that everybody wants to attend. More teams--even if there's space--will result in even fewer plays (a 66-team event generally runs about 8-9 plays/team in quals), so that's kind of frowned upon. (And some folks make a big deal about how 60+ is too many.)
I would say that the criteria for splitting a regional are essentially the same as the criteria for starting a new regional, which your Regional Director will know a little bit better than me--but I'll try anyways. By the way, start now--it can take a year or two to get a regional running.
You'll need a Regional Planning Committee, which will then be responsible for filling in other important details like suitable venues, volunteers, food, power if needed, internet connection for the field... pretty much everything the regional needs.
You'll also need to have a need for said new regional. Your FSMs and RDs will be able to see that a little bit better, but basically you'd need enough teams within a reasonable range to support both. I ran some quick numbers, and I'd suspect that the North regional in event of a split would have a much easier time attracting teams than the South (other than the continual pressure from CA on regionals located in adjacent states...), but with enough double-play teams (playing at both events) I think it could work out.
Short version: You're probably at the point to start thinking about another event, and discussing it with the Senior Mentors and the Regional Directors, but without some growth that also needs to happen, and the organizing body, it'll be quite a while.