Confirmed New Districts for 2015?

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Link07

As cool as new districts are, I'm personally looking forward to how the interdistrict play works out. I wonder how many teams will actually venture outside the region to go play in other districts. For example, I don't think it's really worth the investment for teams to travel far just to play in a high school gym.

I would play in a high school gym anyday in a remote area if it gave our team more chances to play at a fraction of the 20k I put up every season to compete.

[Link07]

Originally Posted by waialua359

I would play in a high school gym anyday in a remote area if it gave our team more chances to play at a fraction of the 20k I put up every season to compete.

This is true. I was mainly talking about teams already part of their own district system. (For example, a team from Maine going to play in NJ)

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Navid Shafa

With 147 teams in NY, you have more than Ontario and Texas. You are bigger than MAR and just about on par with the PNW as far as team count. Density might be a little iffy, but it can't be worse than some of area's everyone keeps pointing to.

While most regions experience issues with team density being consentrated in particular areas, New York is by far the worst example of this. The incredibly uneven distribution of teams in the NYC area compared to the rest of the state presents a unique challenge.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by dodar

...Florida couldnt be a part of a region like MAR and PNW because of the distance that teams would have to travel.

Florida's actually significantly smaller than the PNW. Florida has an area of ~66,000 sq mi, while the PNW has an area of ~160,000 sq mi (New England has an area of 71,000 sq mi, as a sidenote). The PNW also has larger length x width dimensions than FL, so straight-line distances aren't as bad either. As long as the DCMP is centrally located (i.e. Orlando or Tampa), travel should be better than what the PNW (or especially Upper Peninsula MI!) has. The districts can follow the team density so that few team will have more than 4 hours of travel for their two district events.

FIRST is sufficiently dense in a fair number of regions to enable a transition on that count... but there are other factors at play, most notably motivation to transition to districts. That motivation can overcome many other factors (i.e. younger region, fewer current volunteers, large geographic region)... just look at the PNW for that.

I have heard incredibly few complaints from district-regions saying they wish they could go back to regionals...

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Florida's actually significantly smaller than the PNW. Florida has an area of ~66,000 sq mi, while the PNW has an area of ~160,000 sq mi (New England has an area of 71,000 sq mi, as a sidenote). The PNW also has larger length x width dimensions than FL, so straight-line distances aren't as bad either. As long as the DCMP is centrally located (i.e. Orlando or Tampa), travel should be better than what the PNW (or especially Upper Peninsula MI!) has. The districts can follow the team density so that few team will have more than 4 hours of travel for their two district events.

FIRST is sufficiently dense in a fair number of regions to enable a transition on that count... but there are other factors at play, most notably motivation to transition to districts. That motivation can overcome many other factors (i.e. younger region, fewer current volunteers, large geographic region)... just look at the PNW for that.

I have heard incredibly few complaints from district-regions saying they wish they could go back to regionals...

Perhaps you misread my post. Florida couldnt be a part of a region, i.e. Southeast Region (SER): Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina.

When the team density in Florida reaches the correct amount, Florida will be more than capable of becoming its own district system. Just the distance that would be had from having to make a region in the southeast with the correct team density would be very difficult for many of the southeastern states.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Link07

This is true. I was mainly talking about teams already part of their own district system. (For example, a team from Maine going to play in NJ)

I can see it happening. Right now a lot of teams in CT (and parts of MA) can easily venture down into MAR to compete at some of the events. For teams like us it isn't impossible (5 hours to get to NJ from southern NH) but isn't the most ideal. Troy, NY is a little further than CT in terms of distance so if New York goes to districts it wouldn't be that difficult for teams in our area to drive out to Troy.

For other teams it does get harder to see teams traveling across the country to compete but again I don't see it as impossible for a two day event in a high school. Many teams develop great relationships across the country every few years some teams travel far distances to compete to expand their horizons. For a few years, 1519's second "home" event was the North Carolina Regional competing in 2010, 2012, and 2013. That's not to say if North Carolina goes to Districts 1519 will sign up again but if its during school vacation instead of competing for a third day you can sight see or do something fun.

Time will tell but I see the most benefit for areas bordering districts who used to call other events "home". The Tech Valley Regional in New York was created to give teams in that area a close event once they got shut out of events in New England like GSR and WPI.

Who knows maybe the decreased cost of an additional event helps teams put that money towards traveling.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Link07

...I don't think it's really worth the investment for teams to travel far just to play in a high school gym.

There's a lot more to the quality of an event than the shape of the building. Don't forget that IRI is held in a high school gym.

[Jacob Paikoff]

Originally Posted by dodar

The FIRST website has Florida listed at 112 teams; that's why I said 40 or so more to get us around 150. I dont see Florida ever going districts till we get around that number of teams. And Florida couldnt be a part of a region like MAR and PNW because of the distance that teams would have to travel.

If you go through all of the pages there are teams listed that would have been rookies this year and never got numbers as well as defunct teams. No idea why they're there but its been like that all season.

When we do go to districts I believe that Florida would be a region all to itself, Georgia team density is to far from the border to make it feasible.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by dodar

The FIRST website has Florida listed at 112 teams; that's why I said 40 or so more to get us around 150. I dont see Florida ever going districts till we get around that number of teams. And Florida couldnt be a part of a region like MAR and PNW because of the distance that teams would have to travel.

I'm only seeing 63 teams from Florida in 2014.

http://frclinks.com/t/FL-USA

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Link07

As cool as new districts are, I'm personally looking forward to how the interdistrict play works out. I wonder how many teams will actually venture outside the region to go play in other districts. For example, I don't think it's really worth the investment for teams to travel far just to play in a high school gym.

Interdistrict play could be interesting for us - Duluth, MN (out of district assuming no border changes) is closer than all but one Michigan event.

We travel far 'just to play in a high school gym' anyway.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jacob Paikoff

If you go through all of the pages there are teams listed that would have been rookies this year and never got numbers as well as defunct teams. No idea why they're there but its been like that all season.

When we do go to districts I believe that Florida would be a region all to itself, Georgia team density is to far from the border to make it feasible.

This map may be of some use to folks discussing this (https://www.google.com/fusiontables/...l=G EOCODABLE)

It is coded such that you can tell both the density and longevity of a region. Red markers are 1992-1996 rookies. Green markers are 1997-2001. Blue is 2002 - 2005. Yellow is 2006 - 2013. And Blue dots are 2014 rookies.

I apologize that it's a little ugly, my styling options are limited on Google Maps and Fusion Tables refuses to let me get the geocoded data out which means I'm stuck redoing all the encoding before I can produce a new visualization.

[scooty199]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

VA, DC, and MD will not be going to the district model next year. Hopefully 2016 though.

What was proposed for the VA, DC, and MD district lines?

I was talking with my former coach and thought VA is sort of a pain to draw district lines for.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

This map may be of some use to folks discussing this (https://www.google.com/fusiontables/...l=G EOCODABLE)

It is coded such that you can tell both the density and longevity of a region. Red markers are 1992-1996 rookies. Green markers are 1997-2001. Blue is 2002 - 2005. Yellow is 2006 - 2013. And Blue dots are 2014 rookies.

I apologize that it's a little ugly, my styling options are limited on Google Maps and Fusion Tables refuses to let me get the geocoded data out which means I'm stuck redoing all the encoding before I can produce a new visualization.

Not sure if it's my computer or not, but the link wouldn't open for me. I'd be very interested in seeing a map like that though!

Edit: Never mind, it works now

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

Not sure if it's my computer or not, but the link wouldn't open for me. I'd be very interested in seeing a map like that though!

Try a different browser. Opened up fine for me in Chrome on my mobile.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

While most regions experience issues with team density being concentrated in particular areas, New York is by far the worst example of this. The incredibly uneven distribution of teams in the NYC area compared to the rest of the state presents a unique challenge.

I'm not sure it's really that big of a deal. Hold two or three district events in New York City, hold one on Long Island, then one in Rochester, Troy, and maybe Syracuse or Clarkson.
It becomes significantly easier if New York becomes a district the same year they start to allow cross-district play, since then teams near Troy could elect to go to an NE event instead, and perhaps some Canadian teams could go to the possible Clarkson event.

Then hold NY State Champs in either Albany or Syracuse, with some significant sponsors helping for travel fees for some teams in NYC and Long Island that make it.

It's not easy, sure, but I'm not sure its incredibly difficult either.