Projected FRC Size

[MARS_James]

Looking through the request of the FRC Control System I saw this:

FIRST needs a partner that will develop and support a system per the team populations expected below:
2015: 3,600
2016: 4,000
2017: 4,700
2018: 5,400
2019: 6,200

Now I understand they want to cover their base in case of a population boom but realistically speaking do you see this as overly optimistic?

I am not entirely sure it is looking at just the final year 2019: 6,200 teams which is 7 years from now, is 2.68 times the number of active teams this year at 2,343. If we look back to 7 years ago there was 991 active teams meaning we have 2.38 times the number of active teams.

So it is entirely possible they might be right, but what is Delphi's opinion?