Championships location from 07 and onwards

[AmyPrib]

You know, I partially posted all that Indy information to see how many would follow suit to explain why THEIR city would be a good choice. Many have mentioned cities, but haven't really covered all the basis for holding a FIRST championship.

Dave - great post. As for hotel rooms, here's what else I could dig up at the moment. Looks like there are 31 hotels within the 5mi radius of downtown, 20 of them, with 5200 rooms, are within 1.5mi of the Dome, 7 of which are directly connected to the CC... There would also be a number of teams from Indiana (that typically attend) that wouldn't have to stay overnight in Indy.
Actually, the way I read your source of 10,500 rooms is that it's within walking distance "of facilities and major attractions", not necessarily just the Georgia Dome, so I wonder what the distance of all those rooms are.
-64,000 parking spaces in downtown Indy... within walking distance... Some stats: http://www.indydt.com/parking.html

The White River State Park I mentioned, perfect place for Social and webhug... It's a lot larger than Centennial Park as far as grounds, so they could easily pick an area and do it. It includes many of the attractions I listed, accessible from it's grounds. Plus, I think it's basically right across from the Dome and they hold tons of events and rent it out. www.inwhiteriver.org
Also, monument circle (down the street) would be a neat place for a webhug. It's a big monument right in the center of downtown, with a relatively large stepped, fountain, meeting area surrounding it, with brick road roundabout going around it.

The CC and Dome are directly connected, per their map in the link I gave. So, though I've not actually walked those paths, I'm sure they're similar to that of Georgia. Looks to me like it's covered walkway between the buildings. The available space is huge, with like 6 halls all in the same building. That link showed the sq footage, and actually said how many 10x10 "booths" it can hold per hall.

The food court is something I'd have to check too. The only one I'm relatively aware of is the one in Circle Center Mall and seems there's something calls City Market, but it's not quite as big as the CNN center, esp seating. However, there are tons of restaurants/fast foods all in that area, which is something I think there's more of than in Georgia (at least in the immediate area). But, I'm not sure what the convention center has as far as food courts. I did read about catering and such, but I dont' know how that works.

Don't have a clue about discounting of facilities in Indy. That's something that, since it hasn't been held here, I don't think we would know. FIRST would have to tell us if they knew, and I doubt they feel the need to tell us that.
As far as I could tell, it would seem like timing in April would be open in Indy, as I hadn't seen any other big conventions going on during that timeframe the last couple years.

I'll see if I can come up with some other info..
Interesting note - more than half the nations population lives within a day's drive of Indy.. And more interstate segments intersect with Indy than any other metro area in the US. 24 airlines into the airport. Regarding transportation out of the airport, it's only 10mi to downtown. Hmmm.. it does say Amtrak is available from downtown to airport.. I don't think I've been in many "downtowns" that are easy to drive through as Indy.

A few events the CC and Dome have hosted: NFL action of course, Closing ceremonies for Pan-American Games, World indoor track/field championships, world gymnastics champs, NCAA Final Four Mens (3 times already), Women's Final Four this year, and Mens again in '06 and '10, the Black Expo Convenction (every year?). In general, there's the Indy 500 and Nascar every year!

If it were in Indy, it could be more financially effective for teams to travel on the ground. Southern states, Canada, MI, WI, Eastern states, midwestern states, and a few western states (not quite CA)... many of those fly now. Some would be a long bus ride, but it could save them airfare costs, potentially.

So, people, why should it come to your city?? We need substantial, basis-covered, information... Just because there's a Dome, or convention center, doesn't make it a good place. See what you can dig up on your own city...

And, just because a state has the most number of teams doesn't make it the best place to hold it... Not all those teams compete at championships... course, they could attend to watch.... so, what else you got? Let's seem some nice, fun debates on this...
I don't think anyone argues Atlanta can host the FIRST event well. What different cities?