Registration 2011

[Mark McLeod]

Champs is up to 351 352 teams now.
Looks like two teams were pulled off the waitlist this week - 188 & 1732
Overall it looks like 7 teams were pulled off the waitlist after Regionals ended (and one team gave up their spot).

2065 total teams
411 new teams

[MarcD79]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

I have to say, for a team who had waited anxiously week after week for a notification from FRC that they are now off the wait list and invited to the Championship event to have received this notice would have been the most disheartening mail to have received all year. I really feel for those teams who cannot attend yet have both the funding and desire to attend.
Back in 2000 when I attended my first "National Event" at Epcott, pretty much all you had to do was have the $ and you made it to the Nationals. Little did I know that those seemingly plentiful slots would become all so sought after as years passed. It's been a very quick 11 years. I wonder what the Championship Event will be like in 2022? How difficult will it be to get into when there are 3000+ active teams. We were so lucky to have joined when we did.

Good luck to all teams attending the Championship Event.

I think FIRST needs to look at the increase of teams each year & increase the amount of fields for the Championships. I know there are already 5 fields. Why not add a "Davinci" field. This would allow another 80 teams to participate.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

I think FIRST needs to look at the increase of teams each year & increase the amount of fields for the Championships. I know there are already 5 fields. Why not add a "Davinci" field. This would allow another 80 teams to participate.

What does a 5 alliance Einstein bracket look like?

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

What does a 5 alliance Einstein bracket look like?

Round Robin.

[Racer26]

Alternately, find a much bigger venue, and add "Davinci" "Gauss" "Fermat" and "Fibonacci" fields, and turn Einstein into a Quarter/Semi/Final setup.

[Pjohn1959]

I agree. Turn 4 divisions of 85+ teams, into 8 divisions of 60 teams. That would be a total of 480 teams that could come to Championships. That's almost an additional 140 teams that could experience the Championship. It would also give teams a better chance to get to the eliminations on Saturday.

There are plenty of venues that could host something like that. And think of the additional revenues for FIRST and surrounding hotels and restaurants.

[StashZabriski]

Don't forget though...by adding 1, 2, 4 fields you're adding a HUGE amount of money that needs to be raised/spent. Not to mention you're going to need another huge lump of volunteers to setup, run, break down the fields. Not to mention more safety advisors, judges, other key volunteers to handle the extra 80 teams.

It's not just a "lets add 80 more teams" type of situation.

[RMiller]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

There are plenty of venues that could host something like that.

Which venues? Are you planning to include FTC, FLL, and JFLL (not to mention a potential college version)?
I seem to recall last year when there was speculation about where future championships were going to be the list of potential places was quite small.

[Racer26]

I actually think you could fit 8 FRC fields on the floor of a NFL stadium. Atlanta seemed to have a TON of extra space in between the fields that was not optimally used.

[Racer26]

Pros of a CMP format with 8 60-team divisions instead of 4 85-team divisions:

More teams get to go to CMP
Twice as many teams get to compete in Eliminations at CMP.
Everyone gets to play more qualification matches, which means the elimination alliances *should* be better quality, due to a more accurate ranking.
Full elimination bracket on Einstein

Cons:

(For reference, an NFL field is 360x160, or 57,600 sqft)

Need 13 fields. (Based on Week 3 this year, 14 Logomotion fields exist, possibly 15, since I understand FIRST HQ keeps a spare field in a truck ready to go at all times through competition season.)
Need space for ~13 fields: 8 divisional fields, Einstein, plus 4 practice fields. (50x80' footprint each, 4000sq ft * 13 = 52,000sqft.)
Need space for ~500 teams (10x10 pits, 50,000sqft)
Need seating for ~500 teams worth of people (500 x 20 = 10,000. 10,000 people on 24" centers = 240,000" of linear space, or 20,000 ft of grandstand rows which are usually 2.5' deep, so 50,000sqft of grandstands)

Thats 152,000 sqft, before you even account for aisleways, and all the sponsor booths, and FTC/(J)FLL/Collegiate stuff.

8 divisional fields, plus a 9th field (einstein), plus a 10th field sized footprint (FTC) = 40,000 sq ft. it CAN be fit onto a NFL field, especially when you consider the floor of an NFL stadium extends past the edges of the football field. (This is why i also don't understand the need to move 2 fields into the pits this year. Dome floor has TONS of space)

The 10 footprints could be stacked 4 end to end, on each side, with 1 between the sides on each end. would result in a 320x180 total footprint.

[Mark McLeod]

Sorry to bring registration back into the Registration thread, but I thought an answer in another thread belonged here as well. Mostly, so it can be located next season when someone looks for it.

---------------------
86.8% of the 2010 rookies returned to play again in 2011. (37 of 281 did not return)

You need to compare that to the 2011 overall return rate of 91.5% (91.2% if you discount the rookies who did return) to make a valid comparison next year.

There are some historical numbers here for how long teams last after their rookie year. It needs updating for this year and last.
A description of what the chart means is given by the author here

[Pjohn1959]

Mark,

Can you explain the numbers that you used in the chart. I guess i don't understand how you get 100% from 2009, etc. and what is the 1672 represent?

Originally Posted by RMiller

Which venues?

The George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston and the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio would hold everything in one place.

[Mark McLeod]

The original author of that particular chart is our webmaster and he described here how the values were generated.
See if that helps any.

P.S.
The 1672 should be 1677 (the total number of teams in 2009).
This chart was last generated before the final registration quite settled out that year.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

Mark,

Can you explain the numbers that you used in the chart. I guess i don't understand how you get 100% from 2009, etc. and what is the 1672 represent?



The George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston and the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio would hold everything in one place.

The Orange County Convetion Center in Orlando could hold World's like 50 times at the same time.

[RMiller]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

The George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston and the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio would hold everything in one place.

Originally Posted by dodar

The Orange County Convetion Center in Orlando could hold World's like 50 times at the same time.

Looks like Houston and Orlando would be fine from a space perspective. I would question San Antonio (size of convention center).

For reference, at St. Louis, the five halls are 340,000 sq. ft. not including the dome space. That space looks to be mostly used from the FIRST provided maps as to how tight it is hard to saw from the map. The dome is 105,000 - 145,000 sq ft of additional area.

Is a space that would require bleachers/stands for all fields acceptable? Where would you have a near 500 team FRC group sit for the Einstein matches and awards (more if FTC and FLL groups are still around)? Ultimately, that question can be boiled down to this: is getting away from a stadium/convention center set-up acceptable?

When I asked about what venues, I had in my head the stadium/convention center set up. Last year around this time, I think the three places that came up were Atlanta, St. Louis, and Indy. I may go back and look to see if any others were mentioned.