How big will FIRST ever get?

[Raul]

All this talk of bigger and more regionals and bigger championships got me thinking. Just how big will FIRST ever get? I believe FIRST will reach a critical size beyond which it will greatly struggle to sustain growth. What that size is I'm not sure, but I'll take a guess at the end.

Some people were saying that the Championship cannot get any bigger because it is to hard to plan and run an event much bigger than what they run now. OK, that may be true. They say the size of their staff cannot handle too much more.

Regardless of what happens with the size or number of regionals or championships, FIRST will need more staff! If we do grow to 2000 teams or more, how will they handle 2000 kit of parts, and 2000 teams on a FIRST program, and 2000 people asking them questions on the FRC site and so on and so on...

They WILL need more staff! How much staff can they hire? This all depends on funding. I am not sure how much FIRST staff is paid, but I know our entrance fees cannot cover them and the rest of the expenses (too many to list here).

The previous two paragraphs are just one factor that will limit growth. There are many more that I will leave up to you to figure out. I do not want to ramble forever.

So, how big can they get? I say FIRST will never sustain more than approximately 2000 teams - ever! What do you think?

Raul

PS. How many of you remember Dean's goal of 2000 teams by the year 2000?