pic: Arizona Region Team Map

[Joshua May]

Wow, that's a lot of teams in that one area, that's Phoenix, right?

[jpsaul7usa]

Originally Posted by HHSJosh

Wow, that's a lot of teams in that one area, that's Phoenix, right?

It's Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale (lots of teams there), Chandler (lots of teams here), Peoria, Gilbert, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Casa Grand, and of course who could forget Queen Creek? Phoenix is now officially the 5th largest city in the country. Take that Philadelphia. ;p

[David Kelso]

Gee, I will be in Phoenix next weekend...staying in Prescot, any chance you have a local competition that weekend...sort of like Battlecry?

[Jessica Boucher]

I did this same kindof thing with MA once - and then lost the piece of paper.....

Anyway, what's interesting is to then map out the major regions of industry in the state, overlay it, and look for the gaps. In theory, the places with empty areas and large sponsors in them would be ripe for a team to start.

[jpsaul7usa]

Originally Posted by David Kelso

Gee, I will be in Phoenix next weekend...staying in Prescot, any chance you have a local competition that weekend...sort of like Battlecry?

No off season events in AZ . That's the sort of thing I need to make a presentation to address. When I get back from IRI I'll get that ball rolling. ::Makes mighty superhero pose::

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

Anyway, what's interesting is to then map out the major regions of industry in the state, overlay it, and look for the gaps. In theory, the places with empty areas and large sponsors in them would be ripe for a team to start.

For some crazy reason there are no teams in Scottsdale. I find it hard to believe that a large and very rich city like Scottsdale doesn't have a single high school interested in robotics. I have a feeling that's where a lot of veteran teams are going to go recruiting for new teams this year.

[David Kelso]

You will find that FIRST has a map of the US/Canada with cutouts for other FIRST countries. This map is prepared yearly by a local team. the 2004 edition just happens to have every team number located as close to its "home" as possible. (near Detroit, NY City and a few other places, the teams are actually placed in the Lake or ocean ! !) Some places are pretty packed.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by jpsaul7usa

For some crazy reason there are no teams in Scottsdale. I find it hard to believe that a large and very rich city like Scottsdale doesn't have a single high school interested in robotics. I have a feeling that's where a lot of veteran teams are going to go recruiting for new teams this year.

I did a quick search in Hoovers for the Scottsdale area and came up with 72 companies, 38 of them doing over $1mil in sales each year.

Hoovers is a great resource. I have no idea where I'd be without it.

[Amanda M]

See, the funny thing about Arizona is... that there's hardly anyone outside of the Phoenix/Really Big City area. Take Kingman for example. Notice how team 60 is all by itself. That's because if you travel from Phoenix to Kingman you only come across three 'settlements'. I say settlements because I counted Wickenburg (actually a growing town), Wickieup (nearly lifeless, the kids all go to Kingman High School and it's nearly an hour away), and Nothing. Nothing has a population of about 7 I think. Maybe it's 4. I don't really know. So as you drive through Az, you'll notice that Phoenix is really big, and then there's... nothing else. Flagstaff is getting there, and Bullhead might be too, but there's a lot of land between cities.