LAS VEGAS REGIONAL... terminated?

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by Cory

Some local teams who were using LV as a second play are now going to be looking for slots that don't exist in CA. Yeah, we're adding the new Ventura regional, but doing so is just keeping the dam from overflowing...it's not really expanding capacity, especially when you look at growth in rookie teams.

This.

Adding Ventura and losing Vegas would give western teams the same number of regionals as 2014, but the demand will be higher. Even with 6 regionals it's very difficult for a California team to get a second in-state play. Before this year, our out of state options were:

-Hawaii/Colorado/Utah, which is difficult for most CA teams to pull off financially.
-Arizona, which usually fills very early in registration since it's a smaller event and is filled by Arizona and New Mexico teams.
-Las Vegas which is within driving distance for almost every CA team.
-Oregon/Washington events, which was popular with teams from northern California.

With the formation of the PNW region, we lost the Oregon/Washing events, which made Vegas the best out of state option for many California teams (hence why so many California teams were competing in Vegas this year).

If Vegas closes, that would force most California teams to have to find two events in a state which hasn't been able to support two events for its own teams since the 2010 season. In my opinion, this would be a huge step backwards for FRC.