Inter-District Play for 2017

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Your revenue logic makes sense, except one point: For any "extra plays" in districts (3rd/4th plays, interdistrict plays, etc.), the extra play registration fee goes to the District Organization, not to FIRST. So FIRST does not see more revenue if all open district event slots get filled with interdistrict teams, but each District Organization would see additional revenue.

Ah, thank you for the information. I had no idea that districts had their own entities. On that note, are District Organizations just separate accounts within FIRST, or are they completely different legal entities?

I think the level of play on the field always goes up as more teams get more matches/events. This trend can be seen year after year.

I couldn't agree more.

TL;DR, FIRST loses 4k of potential revenue for every Regional team is allowed to play at a District event. I don't see FIRST allowing this situation, at least in the short term.

-Mike

Originally Posted by Drakxii

$4,000 of perceived revenue, teams like Cougar Robotics and Full Metal Jackets might never be able to afford a second regional. Also this is under the assumption that they won't change the pricing model for regional teams.

Just a quick idea would be to set regional to district reg to Nov 14th and then charge regional teams $1.5k, with $1k of it going to FIRST and $500 to the district. Everyone wins: district teams still get first shot at inter-districts, low income regional teams can play more, FIRST gets more money, and Districts get more money.

I would agree with Mike and say that we won't see much blending of the Regionals and Districts within the next few years. The more parties involved, the more complex everything becomes, and the longer the rollout would take. That's just how these things work.

But I do believe there is a potential solution out there, and a need to find the solution as soon as possible. There are teams out there that would pay for a practice event, and there are (maybe) events that could host these teams, allowing FIRST or the entities associated with FIRST to earn revenue, to allow FIRST to contribute and grow even more. Heck, this may be a way to bolster newly formed Districts that might have trouble filling out some of their more outlying events. But my main point is that FIRST and FIRSTers should be thinking about how to transition from the Regional system to the Districts system. At the moment, Districts are being formed after, and only after the Regional system has been proved to be untenable in a specific area. Granted, some of the Districts seemed to have been formed in a more healthy manner than others, which is a great thing. But I think if FIRST and FIRSTers in an area wait until they can't stand the Regional system to make the transition to Districts, there will be stragglers, and isolated pockets, and slowed growth in certain areas for years and years and years to come. So I would love to see solutions as how to blend and smooth the break between Regionals and Districts so that everyone can start to see the heightened levels of competitive play, intellectual challenge, and inspiration that FIRST can bring.