Quote:
Originally posted by D.J. Fluck
I've tried to keep my mouth shut and stay out of this. It has been tough, but now I have to break my silence.
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A very disappointed D.J.
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WOW ... RELAX DJ ... What set you off?
I actually haven't seen too much complaining the past few posts. But how about this for a suggestion ...
I know Indiana teams have been talking about working to reduce the outrageous cost of the Regional competitions - maybe modeled after the current pre/post season events run by various teams. I don't personally have much experience here, but I do know that the past few IRI events showcased some top notch competition with some of the best teams in the country attending - at MUCH LESS than 20% of the cost of a FIRST regional. I am sure many of the other events are similar. I have had many discussions with others regarding the enormous budgets required to sustain a viable team. A "reorganization" of sorts could help solve multiple problems at once.
How about establishing three or four divisions and making the divisional competitions the big glitzy "bling-bling" of FIRST while toning down the regional events significantly (more Divisions could be added as FIRST grows). MUCH less money would be required by individual teams to enter these "scaled down" regionals - then all teams would have to "win" their way to the Divisional "playoffs" which then leads to the National event. The criteria for advancement would be determined by FIRST according to whatever they wanted to emphasize about the program (could be pure robot competition, inspiration, design, etc ... , or a mix - this is a separate debate). If FIRST is not spending so much money on 23+ HUGE GLITZY regional competitions they could even subsidize the Divisional and National costs to ease the burden on teams that win their way there. What better way to increase the participation in FIRST?