[Carolyn Duncan]

Ok, here goes. I'm gonna try to respond to what everyone has posted and add my $0.02.
Andrew said to multi park the event, not gonna happen well. Moving the teams, robots, tools, and other pit stuff isn't gonna work. The teams will be unprepared for their matches due to the inability to scout, this year is supposed to be competition again. The idea of taking over a town like the Olympics would be great. One problem, what town? FIRST isn't as big as the Olympics so what town would allow us to take over? It would have to be near FIRST HQ, which many people have said they don't want to be up north for nationals.
Adrian, I'm liking the 360 idea. That makes sense to me, I wondered why they didn't do that last year when I saw the setup, I was a rookie so I didn't realize that's how it's been forever.
Jessica's comment about Disney holding us back is really accurate. There are ways for Disney to setup all their stuff without it being in the way. They could lay fake flooring over wires onthe ground and duct tape them down under that. Setup a booth behind the stands, like a sky box at a pro game.
Colleen, I'm thinking that having events at both Disney parks would be like multi parking in Orlando, except that this would put a definate riff betweeen the 2 coasts. Sorta like splitting between AFC and NFC. There would be a split that would defeat the purpose of getting everyone together at nationals.
Leon brought up that Disney wants us to stop growing, yet our homework assignment this year was to increase the number of college teams. Go figure. I cannot believe that we are a financial burden on Disney as was pointed out be Leon's figures; 6 million in their pockets is about the profits of a movie, not so bad for 3 days versus a year.
Eddie's point about hotels is huge. We can all go and fill up the Disney hotels if there is vacancy but they would most likely be filled anyway. Which is better, having plans of these roome being filled by FIRSTers and counting on the money or speculation? Personally, I'd bet on the sure thing.
Andy suggested finals in DC. This is a possibility but I personally would not want to be in a prime target area with diplomats everywhere. I used to live there, there are many places you don't wanna be. Before people start telling me that that is the situation in most cities I'll say this: it's not isolated parts of the city that are bad it's every street corner. Any street you cross you have to hope that a diplomat doesn't wanna run the red light and execise his diplomatic imunity. You will get run over in DC if you're not exceptionally carefull. DC is really not the best place to have a competition like that with a large volume of people. Don't get me wrong I love the city, I miss living there sometimes. Then I think about the crap and it makes me glad I don't live there anymore.
Matt, teams wouldn't loose interest in the competition but any hopes of media coverage would be shot. The delay would force media to schedule for multiple events which could put thestrain on thecoverage. It would be very little coverage and nothing good.
As for my thoughts, I'll try to be brief. I think we need to figure out a way to have the competition with everyone there. Suggestions have been made to buy an old football stadium. Sounds good to me, especially if the city has hosted a Super Bowl. This would mean plenty of hotel space and capacity to hold everyone. I am not pushing the idea of dopping Disney but if they are unwilling to suport our growth how can we stay with them? It is possible for Disney to work with us a bit more than they seem to be. Mybe it's time to get out of the parking lot and move into something a bit more permanent. There is another discusion about this going on in the national competition forum, I recomend reading that too. Sorry for writing a novel but I hope this covers everything.