Quote:
Originally Posted by Vikesrock
This is correct. The North Star Regional will be held in Mariucci Arena and the 10,000 Lakes Regional will be held in Williams Arena (with pits in the Sports Pavillion). Someone previously in the thread mentioned the events being 3 miles away from each other, the buildings are actually right across the street from each other.
If I had to guess the reason that they choose to go with this dual regional setup I would say that decision likely fell out of the available venues. They couldn't make a single regional much if any bigger than it was this past year and demand for space already exceeded the number of spots even if just MN and Dakota's teams were counted (10 MN teams attended WI as their only regional and only 5 teams outside MN, ND, SD came to MN). Unlike a number of the University of Minnesota buildings Marriuci and Williams Arena are not connected by underground tunnels and routinely transporting robots outside in the winter in MN is just not a good idea. So the only real way they could increase capacity would be to have two separate events so the robots did not have to travel between the venues.
For those that are unsure of why MN has 2 simultaneous regionals, check the registration when all is said and done. I have a strong feeling that both events will be at max capacity.
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This is correct. From what I heard, the options on the board were:
1.) Minnesota Double Regional
2.) 2 Minnesota Regionals, 2 Seperate Weekends
3.) Wisconsin Double Regional
Wisconsin has the pit space for a double regional, but the real problem was the growing number of Minnesota teams. Also, Minnesota is a completely independentally funded regional while Wisconsin is still relying on NASA funds for another year or two. Minnesota was the better option with all the large facilities, and the funding from 3M, Boston Scientific, and Medtronics. My guess is that they figured it was easier to do two regionals in one weekend than two different weekends. They can group a lot of things-to-do together... This isn't to say that 2 regionals in 1 weekend is an easy thing to do.