Michigan, be honest, how is the district model?

[Lil' Lavery]

Unfortunately I keep missing the MAR forums/webinars due to scheduling issues. I hope to ask some questions about the system at one of them soon.


I have a pretty fundamental question that I'm not sure has been asked. In the short-term, could we simply relocate one (or both) of the area regionals to one of the alternate venues being proposed as district sites? Namely Philadelphia, which has usually been a ~40-45 team event anyway and had higher costs than Trenton. There were a number of proposed venues in the Philadelphia suburbs, why not just have a "traditional" regional at one of those?

That buys another year to continue planning and seek feedback from teams in order to make sure a district model is executed properly for this region.

Additionally, what about things like making our current regionals "bag'n'tag" events? Or running more total matches at our smaller events? The 44 team Philadelphia regional in 2010 only ran 66 total matches, thus why teams only had 9 qualifying matches. Michigan districts only have a few less teams, but get 12 qualifying matches per team by running around 80 matches. A simple increase in the amount of matches we run at our events can bring up the ROI numbers people love so much.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

...
That buys another year to continue planning and seek feedback from teams in order to make sure a district model is executed properly for this region.
...

I can't imagine anyone thinks the area recently labeled MAR will be ready to implement a district system for the 2012 FRC season.

On the other hand I guess I can imagine it; but surely not...

Blake
PS: I thought the middle of the USA's Atlantic Coast was farther south than the area involved in this MAR; but I suppose that topic is a bit low on the priority list.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

could we simply relocate one (or both) of the area regionals to one of the alternate venues being proposed as district sites?

making our current regionals "bag'n'tag" events?

Some on our team noticed that NJ comes out ahead of the game, while Philly costs significantly more (for fewer teams) and is the money-loser in the region. I too would favor finding a less costly alternative to Philly.

Trenton was bag & tag in 2011.

Originally Posted by gblake

I can't imagine anyone thinks the area recently labeled MAR will be ready to implement a district system for the 2012 FRC season.

Without it, one of the current regionals won't happen, as there is a $100k+ budget deficit. So, it's gonna have to happen in 2012.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

...
Without it, one of the current regionals won't happen, as there is a $100k+ budget deficit. So, it's gonna have to happen in 2012.

OK

Along the lines of Sean's comments about keeping independent variables untangled, I personally wouldn't think that reducing costs also mandates switching to a district competition ladder similar to Michigan's; but I can see how the two changes can be linked.

Blake