Future Championship Location?

[S.P.A.M.er]

Come back to the SOUTH!!!!!! we have beautiful weather all year and you can't beat disney or "HOT"lanta (ATL) LOL Both cities have huge airports for teams to fly into and if their not cheep enough Orlando has plenty of surrounding HUGEEEE cities to accomodate the teams (WPB, Tampa, FT. Lauderdale, Jacksonville..... ETC.)

[Phalanx]

Well, I've been to Championships when they were are Epcot, Houston, Atlanta, and now at St. Louis. Out of all of those places, I'll take St. Louis, hands down. I hope FIRST & the city of St. Louis work out a long term deal to stay there.

Speaking for myself only...

The event venue is just as good(better in some respects, not so much in others) when compared setup in Atlanta. The Dome in St. Louis is slightly larger than the one in Atlanta. I disliked the long 10 minute walk from the PITS to the Dome in Atlanta.

St. Louis is centrally located in the US. I live near 2 major airports and it's easier & cheaper to get to St. Louis, than it is to get to Minneapolis or Indiana.

St. Louis is a more friendly, helpful city.
Completely my own personal objective view point.

St. Louis is cheaper than Disney or Atlanta.
This includes Air Fare, Hotel Rates, Food prices.

St. Louis has lots to see and do, more than Atlanta, and most of it is FREE.
For examples...
FREE - St. Louis Zoo on par with the Bronx Zoo, or San Diego Zoo
FREE - St. Louis Science Center
FREE - St. Louis Art Museum
FREE - St. Louis History Museum
FREE - Monetary Museum (Washington University IIRC).

The Metro System, buy a weekly pass for $23.50 go anywhere you want as much as you want. I did all the site seeing above without a car, using the Metro system.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Large? Indianpolis International is ranked 39th in America based on number departures and 49th based on number of passengers. I've found St. Louis to be hard enough to get reasonable flights into, Indy would be even worse. There are plenty of reasons as to why Indianapolis would be an amazing city to host the Championship, but the airport is not one of them.

Wow I get to tell Karthik that he's wrong.

Indianapolis has the advantage of not being dominated by any one airline. Not being a major hub makes our passenger traffic look small but because of that flights are reasonable and easy to find. We even get folks driving here from Cincinnati and Louisville to get reasonable flights. This is one of the reasons we book many large conventions (the FFA convention makes FIRST look small.)

Our biggest problem is access from the convention center to the dome. There is no way to get from one to the other without using stairs or an elevator. This makes getting a 140lb robot from pits to the playing field problematic.

Also I fully expect FIRST to exercise at least one of their option years for St. Louis just like they did for Atlanta. With districts not being really expanded until 2014 and until a whole new qualification system is in place, I would be surprised to see a RFP for a new venue until after 2014.

[IndySam]

One thing that I think most of you need to understand is that when looking for a place for the championship things that are for the convenience of teams (all the things discussed here, flights, hotels, attractions and so on) are not necessarily FIRST's primary considerations.

They really have to consider their costs for hosting the event, that means what are the hotels willing to pony up, what will the local government do for them and what corporate sponsors they can exploit (and I mean that in a good way)

So if you want your town hosting the Championship I suggest you start working on the cash, not how nice your venue is.

PS this is not a put down of FIRST, this is how they have to do business anything else would be irresponsible.

[Cheerleader1073]

Vikings against the Pats... no shot, just saying .

[Kait Sims]

I maintain that #8 is my favorite.

"Whoa, did a zip tie just fall from the ceiling?" *BOOM* and he's out

My vote is for Champs in Hawaii. But that's just me. Though admittedly it won't make much of a difference for drive team/pit crew - I hardly ever saw daylight at any regionals/Champs. Sigh. A girl can dream though.

[3747Mentor]

Originally Posted by Cheerleader1073

Vikings against the Pats... no shot, just saying .

No kidding! The Pats would be creamed!

[jyh947]

Originally Posted by Kait Sims

I maintain that #8 is my favorite.

"Whoa, did a zip tie just fall from the ceiling?" *BOOM* and he's out

My vote is for Champs in Hawaii. But that's just me. Though admittedly it won't make much of a difference for drive team/pit crew - I hardly ever saw daylight at any regionals/Champs. Sigh. A girl can dream though.

Not to shoot down an idea but this would be just plain painful to plan out. I don't know if there's a venue big enough for a Championship event. Even if there was, the logistical challenge of getting 400+ teams to Hawaii by plane is painful to imagine.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by jyh947

Not to shoot down an idea but this would be just plain painful to plan out. I don't know if there's a venue big enough for a Championship event. Even if there was, the logistical challenge of getting 400+ teams to Hawaii by plane is painful to imagine.

There is no venue big enough in Hawaii to host the FRC Championships.
VEX absolutely yes......FRC no.

Getting 400+ teams here logistically is no biggie.
Its the cost, and yes, we know from experience.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by jyh947

Even if there was, the logistical challenge of getting 400+ teams to Hawaii by plane is painful to imagine.

FIRST on a boat it is then.

[372 lives on]

Originally Posted by CalTran

FIRST on a boat it is then.

FIRST CHMP/Hawaiian cruise.

them cruise ships are pretty big

[qzrrbz]

Originally Posted by CalTran

FIRST on a boat it is then.

Water Game!

[dag0620]

Although champs no, I always wondered if one could pull off an FRC event on a cruise ship....?

One day, you never know?

[mrmummert]

Before we end up with a thread about using a cruise ship...This has been done before.....http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ht=cruise+ship

[Camren]

Originally Posted by jyh947

Not to shoot down an idea but this would be just plain painful to plan out. I don't know if there's a venue big enough for a Championship event. Even if there was, the logistical challenge of getting 400+ teams to Hawaii by plane is painful to imagine.

All teams must sea kayak down. I call it the FIRST Fitness Act