Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryVoshol
Except that under current rules, approximately 250 teams qualify directly. Plus another 30 or so that pre-qualify - HoF, past winners, etc. To cut it down to 200, you'd have to eliminate some qualifiers, and not allow any "buy-in" teams. That would mean some teams would never get to Champs; the current structure was designed so that every HS student would be eligible to go to Champs sometime in a 4-year FIRST career.
And, in the thread Andy Baker started with old videos, I believe I heard one statement of 74 teams at Disney. That's a far cry from 200.
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The 2002 Championship -- the last at Walt Disney World -- hosted nearly as many FRC teams as competed in Atlanta last year. There were five fields and everyone was in the same pit tent. It was not much different in organization -- only in atmosphere.
The challenge -- and certainly not something that cannot be overcome -- is in accomodating the FLL and FTC events that are held concurrently with the FRC Championship. Those programs were not represented in Walt Disney World, to my knowledge. FTC, of course, didn't exist, but FLL may have had a small presence.