Where is gonna be located the 2014-2015 Championship?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Racer26

You mean like the Rogers Center (#SkyDomeForever!) and MTCC combination in Toronto, ON?

I don't think the Blue Jays would feel very inclinded to share their field with us at this time of year.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Aiyash

Cobo Hall and the Joe Louis Arena? Go Detroit!

The Red Wings tend to be using the Joe in late April.

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I don't think the Blue Jays would feel very inclinded to share their field with us at this time of year.

Far more likely than all the NHL/NBA arenas (given the playoff time frame). You can easily schedule a road trip in the regular season. We'd occupy the space for just under a week, or basically two series on the road. Hardly even a road trip worth mentioning.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I don't think the Blue Jays would feel very inclinded to share their field with us at this time of year.

Yea the MTCC/SkyDome would be a great location for championship in terms of Transit/Hotels/Restaurants/Attractions in the area. But there really isn't a connection between MTCC and Skydome that would work for moving people/robots. Also the majority of MTCC's floor space is a couple levels underground... moving robots in elevators wouldn't be fun. There is also that whole passport issue

Its my understanding that the MTCC is going to go under a massive renovation in the next 5 years (It desperately needs it).

For me St. Louis/Indy/Houston/Atlanta are the front runners.

[neshera]

Let's have CMP at Lawrence North! But seriously:
If I recall correctly, every year at IRI there is a city council member/alderman, who has explained that he feels Indianapolis wants, and has the facilities, for Champs - Lucas stadium and the convention center. He makes a compelling argument.
Although geographically central for the continental US, (and very convenient for our team!), I think Indianapolis is not geographically central for FIRST teams. If I understand correctly, our geographic center is a bit farther North.

So here's a project for someone with time on their hands: set up a map/algorithm that shows all FRC teams, and calculates their "center of gravity".

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by neshera

So here's a project for someone with time on their hands: set up a map/algorithm that shows all FRC teams, and calculates their "center of gravity".

Ed Law doesn't have this done yet?

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Ed Law doesn't have this done yet?

For some reason I just had a science-fiction dream of Ed Law, Mark McLeod, and Ether fusing together as some all-powerful FIRST AI.

I liked Atlanta a lot more than St. Louis but I wouldn't be opposed to something as convenient as Indy

[Racer26]

I feel (intuitively) that FIRSTs CoG is somewhere in Ohio.

Ontario, Michigan and the Northeast pull it that way, while California and Texas pull it away, resulting in somewhere in Ohio or Indiana.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by Racer26

I feel (intuitively) that FIRSTs CoG is somewhere in Ohio.

Ontario, Michigan and the Northeast pull it that way, while California and Texas pull it away, resulting in somewhere in Ohio or Indiana.

Don't forget Florida's 76 teams pulling it south (only 1 less than Ontario) . Also fun fact If you are a team in Miami and want to drive to some other state for a competition it is about 7-8 hours just to get out of Florida

[Boe]

the two biggest pulls of firsts cog is probably texas/california vs minnesota/michigan with other small amouts from the rest of the country, with the next biggest group probably being the NE. Iowa probably is most central i would think or maybe nebraska

[JeffersonMartin]

Okay, maybe the Georgia Dome, is young and doesn't need to be replaced, but how amazing would the FIRST championship be in the Pantheon? http://www.businessinsider.com/atlan...led-pantheon-1

[MysterE]

Just thought I'd throw in New Orleans as a possibility.

[Phalanx]

I've been doing FIRST since 2003, and missed the EPCOT era. However, I know from Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis. In comparing the 3, myself I personally pick St. Louis hands down over the others. Here are my reasons why. Keep in mind I'm on the EAST coast.

1) Centralized location for the MAJORITY of FIRST teams.
2) Cheaper hotel, airfare, and food costs than Atlanta.
3) Convention Center(ie.. Pits) to Dome travel is less than 5 minutes.
4) Mass Transit is inexpensive $25 for a weekly ($7 daily) go anywhere as much as you want pass. Both bus and metro rail take you right to the event venue.
5) For those that believe in staying long than just the event, there are a number of great FREE things to see and do. For example, the History Museum, Art Museum, the Zoo and most things in FOREST PARK (via Metro Rail) are FREE. In fact I usually get there a few days ahead of time for sightseeing.

I do agree that the weather can be iffy. I was there for an entire week this year. I had a mix of low 70's sunny, and rainy cold days, the day I left(Monday) it was 81 and sunny. But heck we're inside for the event anyway.

I also agree that finding food in St. Louis in the evenings is difficult. Most places close at 2PM as it's a 8-4/9-5 kind of town. However, I've found that there are a number of good places not far from the venue that are open. I've been told this has been discussed with the St. Louis chamber of commerce, but the local business haven't been willing to invest in the risk that MAYBE someone will come in. That's something that definitely needs more work.

[PerpetualMotion]

This is an interesting discussion. The main requirements of the Championship Location is that it is in a venue that is large enough to have five fields, and seat over 20,000 people. It seems like the only options for this are NFL and MLB stadiums, unless you want to roll bleachers into a convention center like 2011, but that is uncomfortable to say the least. The venue also needs to be next to a convention center in order to hold all of the pits.

To evaluate all possible options, I made a list of all NFL and MLB stadiums using wikipedia. From this list, I crossed off any stadiums that did not have a roof (I just looked at the pictures to do this, so this may be inaccurate). I was left with the following 13 options.

Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona
Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas
Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri
Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan
Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana
Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas
Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington
Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona

I then searched for nearby convention centers for each of these stadiums. There does not appear to be a CC near Tropicana Field, and the ones near University of Phoenix Stadium and Reliant Stadium are over 5 miles away. The CCs near Cowboys Stadium, Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Safeco Field, Ford Field, and Mercedes-Benz Superdome do not appear to be connected to the stadiums (please correct me if I'm wrong). This leaves 5 options

Georgia Dome
Chase Field
Edward Jones Dome
Lucas Oil Stadium
Rogers Centre

Chase Field has a grass playing surface and likely cannot be covered up for 4+ days, so it doesn't appear to be an option, and the Rogers Centre is in Canada, so there are the obvious travel and passport issues that go along with it, so it doesn't seem to be an option either.

Interestingly enough, the 3 remaining options are the 3 that are commonly discussed here on CD; Georgia Dome, Edward Jones Dome, Lucas Oil Stadium.

Ranking these venues depend on personal opinion at this point, but I think the major factors include travel (minimizing distance and cost, ie. major airport), accommodation availability/cost, and ease of robot transportation from the pits to the field. Other factors include weather, nearby food/attractions and the FIRST Finale. Safety and crime is an obvious consideration, although as others have said, I think all of these cities would have similar crime issues.

While others have said Indianapolis is the most central for teams, for the teams outside of driving distance, flight cost are long and/or expensive to non-major airports. According to wikipedia, Atlanta is the most busy airport in the US, so it likely has the cheapest rates and most direct flights. St. Louis is ranked 31st and Indianapolis is 50th. IMO, travel is the next most important metric, so Atlanta wins by a landslide, however if the stadium is in fact slated to be torn down in 2017, maybe it's not actually an option as I'm sure FIRST would want a contract longer than 2-3 years.

If Atlanta is out of the question, I would be interested to know how well connected the Lucas Oil Stadium and Indiana Convention Center are, and how easy it will be for robots to get to/from the fields.

[MechEng83]

While I'd love for the World Championship to be in Indy in 2015, it looks like the standard week we would have the event is already reserved: http://www.icclos.com/planners/upcom...ventID=1504001

I suppose FIRST could always change the week, but maybe we're looking at 2016 before the event is in Indy.

[kwotremb]

I enjoy reading all of these comments about passports. I feel sorry for all of our international friends. I know there are more teams in the US, but they have to deal with having a passport to travel to the US. If Canada has the best option for holding the event, I do not feel like this should be a deal breaker.

Will be interesting to watch what happens with the new stadium in Atlanta as well as Minnesota to see if they could become potential areas to hold the event.