[Matt Leese]

Originally posted by Michael Krass
Christina and I talked about this a bit last night. . .

Epcot can accomodate a growing National Championship. There's no question about it, as Epcot's parking lot is one of the largest on WDW property (if not the largest. . .I'm not sure.)

It's really just a matter of whether or not FIRST is worth Disney's effort. I don't mean to sound like a pessimist, but I'm afraid it's true. FIRST is not a blip on Disney's radar when it comes to the bottom line. You might think we bring in a lot of money, but when you consider the number of hotel rooms on Disney property (which is all that really matters to them) versus the amount occupied by FIRST'ers, it becomes insignificant. If there are 10,000 FIRST people going around, that's only a fraction of the capacity of a single theme park . . . It might be a boost for the weekend, or the month, but in the end, it's not a financial boon for Disney in any respect.

In the future, Nats will be limited only if Disney decides that it's not worth their while to bring forth the infrastructure to house a growing event. Pit and field tents are essentially free. The big costs, IMHO, are in the stadium and infrastructure (i.e. power drops). The stadium can be made a little more circular and that can house a few hundred more people. If we grow larger than that, the stadium won't suffice. Or, at the very least, it'll need to be an entire theater in the round scenario, and then the logistics of setting up the stage in the middle become a bit hairy.

Other possibilities?

Disney east coast and Disney west coast? Well, the thing is, space at Disneyland is at a premium. Since California Adventure ate up DL's parking lot, the only available pavement is the Timon Lot. All of the other lots have been replaced with the parking structure. Timon can house a competition, but it's not going to be around much longer. Once Disney management realizes that the only way to get attendance up at DCA is to add new attractions, the Timon lot will get razed.

Disney owns a plot of land a bit away from Disneyland, but it's undeveloped, and there's no infrastructure there.

Splitting up Nats in WDW?

In my opinion, it's not likely. Epcot's big. It's really, really big. People have suggested holding part of the competition in the Magic Kingdom (or nearby, in reality). The Magic Kingdom's parking lot is big, but it's also really isolated. Right now, FIRST benefits by being next to Epcot for a few reasons:

It's easy for the teams to go in and out of the park for the party or food.
It's got easy access to Walt Disney World Transportation.
It's located right near Epcot's entrance, making it possible for non-FIRST people to wander over and see what's going on.


The MK parking lot doesn't have these things. The only way to get to the MK is to take a tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then get on a boat or monorail. Bus transportation is available here also. But, it's a long walk to the TTC. The speedway isn't really substantial enough to house the competition, and it's usually a ghost town.

Being stuck in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere effectively means that nobody who doesn't already know about FIRST will come to see it. People might see the stadiums set up on their way to the Magic Kingdom, but little Suzie and Jimmy want to see Dumbo as quickly as possible. They don't want to wander around trying to figure out what's going on in the parking lot.

Finally, how do you handle finals? You can still hold them, and the team party, for that matter in Epcot. But, how do you get robots from the divisions at the MK over to Epcot? You sure can't put 'em on a monorail. FIRST could run shuttles, but what about tools, and machine shops and everything else? What about chaperoning the kids? It becomes very hard for a team to pick it's whole operation up and move to Epcot for some matches. . .

Oh, one other thing while I'm on it. Housing opportunities on Disney property will be much easier to find next year. . . By then, Disney's Pop Century resort ought to be up and running with an additional 5,000 hotel rooms, and it's in the same pricing bracket as the All-Star Resorts.

~ Michael, who's quite bored at work today.

As far as the idea of Nationals East and West, who says that Disney has to hold them in the west? There are probably many other facitilities out there that would be willing to donate some space for a competition.

As far as multiple venues at WDW: The main issue at Epcot that I can see (despite FIRST saying there was a need to limit teams and not people) is the sheer number of people showing up for nationals. Disney may be good at crowd control but 17,000 people in a relatively small space is pushing it. You divide the arenas in half and you solve that problem. As to moving the robots and tools, etc, have Disney do it. No big problem there. As to moving teams, only move the winning alliance. Everybody else should stay put and watch on the big screen. Much easier that way. As far as drawing people already visiting from Disney, it doesn't matter because I sincerely doubt we draw all that many people. People may stop and look for a minute but that's about it. It's a fact of life and getting stuck in the Magic Kingdom parking lot wouldn't really change the matter too much.

Matt