[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

... In the past, Cleveland has leaned more towards being one of the super-regionals, and pittsburgh has been more of a local regional.

I dont know if FIRST headquarters is calling the shots on these, or trying to push certain venues to max out, but since FIRST is too big for all teams to attend the championship, this is the direction we will have to take (with the eventual goal of having a FIRST team at every HS in the US).

The CSU Convocation Center is a nice event venue. 931 went to Buckeye last year, but we can't this year because the date conflicts with our home regional (STL). Like many teams, our selection of a second regional was strongly influenced by its dates, location, and availability. And when I found out that we could get in at Karthik's event (Waterloo), there was no need to look further!

I see that Buckeye has set their capacity at 60 teams again this year and has paid entries for 34 of those slots, with 10 more shown as pending payment. I think they had 48 teams last year, so this year may be down slightly. I have not seen the venue with 60 teams present, but it did seem crowded to me with 48, so I think a 70+ team "Super Regional" there would strain the arena. I don't know what they would do for pits if a second field (like at GTR) was added.

Many existing regionals have the same kind of venue limitation. STL had 44 teams last year and is expecting 40+ this year. To increase capacity we would need to find another venue.

Sorry for the rambling... My main thought here is that FIRST HQ will probably need to take an active role in planning for super-regionals if they are going to become a realistic alternative for teams that don't go to the Championship.