Where is gonna be located the 2014-2015 Championship?

[MysterE]

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

[Cory]

Someone did this study in 2009-2010 when Indy was pulling to be the next host of Championships and said that Indy was basically the population center of FIRST. I recall the number being something like 60+% of teams that would attend champs could drive, if it was held in Indy.

[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.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by PerpetualMotion

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.

I believe the new Stadium is going to remain on the "GWCC campus" with its most likely location being on the north side of the GWCC instead of the south, where the Georgia Dome is. I believe the NCAA, SEC, and Peach Bowl committee have cited their favorability of the location to hold major events because they also use one of the halls of the convention center for fan events for Final Four, SEC Football Championship, and Chick Fil A Peach Bowl "fanfests" in a contained environment.

The GWCC is also the largest event space of its kind when added in with the dome, and the GWCC will have nominal ownership and control over the new stadium.

As I have mentioned in previous threads, the AirTran/Southwest merger coupled with Delta have made the Atlanta airport not only a living hell for people who need connecting flights out of the airport , it means usually teams can fly direct cheaper from far flung places for cheaper than connecting into St Louis.

It is interesting that HQ has announced this one year extension into 2014 but has neither officially renewed in St Louis nor made any rumblings of putting out a bid yet, but we may see that during or after the summer.

[gyroscopeRaptor]

Minnesota's conference center is far away from the new Vikings stadium site. It's not going to be there.

[Moon2020]

Correct, Tropicana does not have an exhibit hall attached. There are not enough hotels centrally located next to it either.

That's it. Orlando has to build a domed stadium next door to the OCCC and lure an NFL team to bring FIRST back. ;-)

I'm not complaining about flying to St. Louis, but I'd rather drive to Atlanta.

There is great food available past 5 pm in St. Louis if you know where to look for it.

[Lil' Lavery]

Passports are far from the only barrier to moving the Championship to Canada (or another foreign nation). NASA, and any other US gov't entities, likely wouldn't be able to sponsor the event as easily (if at all) if it's not held within the US.

[bearbot]

what about Baltimore,MD and the Baltimore convention center

[Moon2020]

Originally Posted by bearbot

what about Baltimore,MD and the Baltimore convention center

Camden Yards is not attached nor does it have a dome. Brrr!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by bearbot

what about Baltimore,MD and the Baltimore convention center

Everyone keeps bringing up Convention Centers are options.First of all they wouldn't be fields anymore. They'd be rooms (Gallieo Room. Archimedes Room. Curie Room. Newton Room) because basically convention centers are just big rooms. And during the qualifications it's perfectly fine. A little tight in the stands but doable. Then comes the elims where everyone is darting between fields between matches and now have to go down the hall or even up and down an escalator to do so. Now comes the real fun part: Einstein. Do you really think you're gonna fit 20 to 30 thousand people in a room. Do you think the Fire Marshal is gonna allow it? So sine we can't cram all those people into the room who gets to go? If you didn't get into the elims, you can't come in. If you got eliminated in the quarters you can't come in. If you got the boot in the semis half of your team can come in. Everybody else sure it's cool. The rest of you peasants can go watch on a screen in your division room.
Yeah, that'll go over really well.
So let's drop the idea of ever going to a convention center. It just can't happen.

[TheMadCADer]

Originally Posted by PerpetualMotion

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 Reliant convention center is within feet of Reliant Stadium. I'm guessing you were going by George R. Brown, which is pretty far away.

[IndySam]

You could set up 8 different divisions in the Indianapolis Convention Center of 60 teams. Keeping them small would provide more adequate seating and the matches teams are looking for.

Let FTC and FLL have Lucas all to themselves until Saturday. Have two or three fields in the dome and run round robin matches among the division winners Saturday after lunch and have the top four go to Einstein.