[Joe Johnson]

I have no inside knowledge of anything that tells me that FIRST and Disney will part ways some day.

I am really just thinking and hoping outloud...

Right now, Disney is a net positive for FIRST, in terms of support and in terms of credibility -- having the Nationals... ...er ah... Championship Event at Disney gives FIRST a certain amount of "they must be somebody if they are associated with Disney" appeal.

In the long run, FIRST will not need this PR boost from Disney. In the long run, if FIRST is as successful as I am hoping FIRST will be, cities will bid to host the FIRST Championship the same way that cities now bid to host the Superbowl, the All-star game, and the NCAA tourney. In such a bidding process, I don't suppose that Disney will find it worth the money to put together a winning bid -- Cities like Detroit, NYC, New Orleans, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Houston, etc. will have much more at stake if they win the bid than Disney could ever hope to make on the sorry business we bring to the Magic Kingdom*.

That is the reason why I think that it is very likely that the days of Championships being held at Disney are numbered.

Joe J.

*I really mean that by the way, we are terrible customers for Disney -- the fact that we don't go into the park is not a good thing from their perspective -- not going into the park means we are not spending our MONEY in the park -- I am not saying that Disney does not make money on our visit but that they don't make what a typical Disney customer would make them AND they have to build us a $3M complex in order to get us to come at all -- Believe me, we are by no means the goose that lays golden eggs at least from Disney's perspective.