New York Districts?

[Dominick Ferone]

I was wondering, I heard the plan is for most places to be district by 2017. Has anyone heard more about New York? The slight challenge may be that it's almost split into three major sections where there are teams. Western/Nortern New York, NYC/Long Island and then the Capital district. But the leaves central New York out somewhat as they aren't as rapidly grown. Also where would the best place to hold District champs be?

[Kevin Leonard]

This is actually a really important subject that the state needs to discuss sometime soon.
New York as a district is complicated in a number of ways.
As Dominick said, New York's FRC teams can be split into three major regions: Western NY, NY and Long Island, and Central NY and the Capital District.

NY currently hosts four regionals: The Finger Lakes Regional, The New York Tech Valley Regional, The New York City Regional, and the SBPLI Long Island Regional.

FLR is often visited by teams from Ontario, TVR this year was visited by teams from Ontario, NE, and MAR, NYC is traditionally visited by numerous international teams due to NYC's history as a hub for tourism, and SBPLI additionally hosted international teams recently.

New York not only faces a problem of teams having to travel distances for events, but also the problem of having teams often visit these events from other areas.

Proposal 1: New York as one district
The basic proposal is to make New York into one giant district. This is not impossible. A district championship could be located in either Syracuse, Albany, or NYC fairly well.
This proposal hurts FIRST's growth abroad, as teams from other countries who traditionally travel to any of the events in NY will have to find new regionals to attend.
It is also difficult to travel to district Champs for many teams regardless of where you locate the DCMP.

Proposal 2:The Upstate New York District
Upstate NY becomes it's own district, with a District Champs located in Syracuse. This leaves NYC and SBPLI as an area with Regionals, and forces teams that had been attending TVR or FLR from Long Island to go elsewhere. Upstate New York also has a much smaller amount of teams without the City.

Proposal 3:New York joins nearby districts
A few proposals I've seen merge Western New York with either Ohio or Ontario for districts. The capital Region could then merge with New England. This leaves many central New York teams in a state of limbo, having to either join one of the two districts, or stuck in-between.
This also leaves NYC/LI without districts.
EDIT: Or with NYC/LI as a part of MAR.

I don't know which is best for the state or for FIRST, and I don't know what other proposals exist.

[Link07]

One interesting thought is the idea of expanding MAR to include New York City/Long Island once everywhere is switching over to districts.

[Dominick Ferone]

There is also a possibility of incorporating Pennsylvania.and/or making the whole northeast one big district.
Incorporate MAR, New England,New York, Penn. into s super district which would incorporate Roughly 525 teams.

[EricDrost]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

There is also a possibility of incorporating Pennsylvania.and/or making the whole northeast one big district.
Incorporate MAR, New England,New York, Penn. into s super district which would incorporate Roughly 525 teams.

A DCMP as big as MSC probably shouldn't be the goal.

That being said, I'd be happy with MAR absorbing NYC and LI. It would force MAR to move the district championship closer to the geographic center than out in the middle of NOWHERE in Pennsylvania.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

I was wondering, I heard the plan is for most places to be district by 2017. Has anyone heard more about New York? The slight challenge may be that it's almost split into three major sections where there are teams. Western/Nortern New York, NYC/Long Island and then the Capital district. But the leaves central New York out somewhat as they aren't as rapidly grown. Also where would the best place to hold District champs be?

I'm not seeing any challenges, the 152 teams in the PNW district are spread out across 170,000 sq mi compared to the 147 team in NY spread out across 55,000 sq mi. We have three areas where the majority of teams are concentrated though one of those has a really high concentration. We hold a number of events in the area with the highest concentration, a few less in the area with lower concentration, one in the area with a good concentration and a couple in more outlying areas. Additionally FIRST is likely to eventually move to a system where district points are portable, so going to an event outside of your district will allow you to bring your points home assuming that it is your 1st or 2nd event chronologically.

Personally I'd say that the 150 ish team district is just about perfect. It allows for growth and the ability to hold the necessary events in 5 weeks and a DCMP in week 6 to allow teams sufficient time to prepare for CMP. Once growth exceeds that 10 event limit then it can switch to a 4 week district season with a week to prepare for DCMP or a RCMP.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I'm not seeing any challenges, the 152 teams in the PNW district are spread out across 170,000 sq mi compared to the 147 team in NY spread out across 55,000 sq mi. We have three areas where the majority of teams are concentrated though one of those has a really high concentration. We hold a number of events in the area with the highest concentration, a few less in the area with lower concentration, one in the area with a good concentration and a couple in more outlying areas. Additionally FIRST is likely to eventually move to a system where district points are portable, so going to an event outside of your district will allow you to bring your points home assuming that it is your 1st or 2nd event chronologically.

Personally I'd say that the 150 ish team district is just about perfect. It allows for growth and the ability to hold the necessary events in 5 weeks and a DCMP in week 6 to allow teams sufficient time to prepare for CMP. Once growth exceeds that 10 event limit then it can switch to a 4 week district season with a week to prepare for DCMP or a RCMP.

The problem is that a large number of the teams from New York City have very, very, limited resources, making even a 2-3 hour drive with a team and a robot for many of them very difficult.

The NYC FIRST community is awesome the way they support each other to allow some of the teams to even attend just the NYC event.

However if they had to travel to Albany for a district championship, many would be unable to.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

The problem is that a large number of the teams from New York City have very, very, limited resources, making even a 2-3 hour drive with a team and a robot for many of them very difficult.

The NYC FIRST community is awesome the way they support each other to allow some of the teams to even attend just the NYC event.

However if they had to travel to Albany for a district championship, many would be unable to.

Most of the teams in the outlying areas in the PNW district have very, very limited resources and they have to drive 2 hours to get to anything.

[Mark McLeod]

Many NYC student families do not have cars, nor mentors to drive them.
Many are limited to where the subway can take them.

Every area has it's own challenges.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

The problem is that a large number of the teams from New York City have very, very, limited resources, making even a 2-3 hour drive with a team and a robot for many of them very difficult.

Illinois has a similar issue with Chicago teams. It's something that will resolve itself one way or another.

[Brandon_L]

Can someone run some stats?

How many teams are there in NY as a whole?

How many teams (roughly) are in each of the three areas? (Western, Capitol, and NYC)

[Sperkowsky]

Putting ny in one district is crazy. To go from Eastern long island to the top of the state takes about 10 hours not to mention there is close to 60 teams in nyc and 45 in long island even though geographically we are on top of each other.

[AGPapa]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Can someone run some stats?

How many teams are there in NY as a whole?

How many teams (roughly) are in each of the three areas? (Western, Capitol, and NYC)

I'm counting 147 FRC teams in New York this season. Here's a map.

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Putting ny in one district is crazy. To go from Eastern long island to the top of the state takes about 10 hours not to mention there is close to 60 teams in nyc and 45 in long island even though geographically we are on top of each other.

Originally Posted by AGPapa

I'm counting 147 FRC teams in New York this season. Here's a map.

Rough enough for my interest. Would it be crazy talk to suggest NYC/Long Island as its own district?

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Rough enough for my interest. Would it be crazy talk to suggest NYC/Long Island as its own district?

The biggest challenges in a NYC+LI district would be the lack of (inexpensive) venues - you'd need 5 or 6 events, and finding high schools with the capacity to hold an event would prove difficult. Furthermore, where would the field be stored when not in use? NYC real estate isn't exactly easily available or cheap...

The NYC area poses a lot of unique problems to the district transition, which need some innovative solutions before they start thinking seriously about transitioning.