Potential Regional Sites

[jdhawg]

Originally Posted by craigcd

I have not seen any official notification but I have it from a very good source that there will be a regional in New Orleans in 2007.

I hope that isn't the same reliable source that told me we would be having a regional in New Orleans in 2005..... er, make that 2006...... no, wait; make that 2007......

The problem with a New Orleans regional is corporate sponsorship. If that could get that taken care of, then University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena would be great! Cool enough for teams to say "We're going to New Orleans" but still too much of a walk for team members to sneak out of the hotel at night and get to the French Quarter/Bourbon Street without "Adult Supervision."

[Dan Richardson]

How about a South Florida Regional at Ft. Lauderdale convention center.. or one in miami... its 2 miles from the beach :-)

Common who wouldn't want to come to beautiful sunny ft. lauderdale towards the end of winter and get to blaim it on robots

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

Originally Posted by Stud Man Dan

How about a South Florida Regional at Ft. Lauderdale convention center.. or one in miami... its 2 miles from the beach :-)

Common who wouldn't want to come to beautiful sunny ft. lauderdale towards the end of winter and get to blaim it on robots

A South Florida Regional would be pretty sweet. I would think it could be at the Office Depot Center or American Airlines Arena. The University of Miami has a pretty new convocation center as well.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by jdhawg

The problem with a New Orleans regional is corporate sponsorship. If that could get that taken care of, then University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena would be great! Cool enough for teams to say "We're going to New Orleans" but still too much of a walk for team members to sneak out of the hotel at night and get to the French Quarter/Bourbon Street without "Adult Supervision."

Actually, the problem with getting a New Orleans Regional competition started has to do with team density and not with corporate sponsorship. More than 75% of the funds required for the event have already been identified. However, it was expected that there would not be enough teams to fully populate a new competition event this upcoming season without adversely impacting the other events in that region of the country. In particular, there was a concern that too many teams would have to be drawn from Texas and Florida to attend the new event, and that would draw down on the attendance at these competitions. So the decision was made to postpone planing for the New Orleans regional for at least one year, and concentrate on growing new teams in Louisiana in 2006.

-dave

[jgannon]

There are plenty of places in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that could support a regional, I'm sure. With only one team in the whole state, and so many huge potential corporate sponsors (3M is based there, Ford has a huge plant, and I'm sure there are myriad others), planning a regional there for 2007 could spawn many more teams in 2006 and the years after. I assume that some of the Michigan and Indiana teams would be interested, but not too many to impact the regionals there. So, why not Minnesota?

(Am I the only person other than pakrat who suggested a regional that isn't coincidentally convenient for my own team? )

[santosh]

I would really like to see a regional somewhere in Europe. Generate some interest and create some excitement over there which could lead to some teams starting over there. I would really like us to be able to keep some of these other regionals around. I know Peachtree is out a ton of money because of no more NASA money. I wonder how they are going to function next year.

[craigcd]

Right now New Orleans has four teams. OP.Walker (1550), Abramson (1534), Kenedy (1589) and New Orleans Math and Science (1304). There will be two new teams in 2006. We are trying to get at least two more new schools on the north shore (Slidell and Covington) making eight in total. NASA will sponsor the regional and guarantee at least 30 teams. The Lake Front Arena at UNO will probable not be the site and the Ponchertrain Center in Meterie will most likely will be the choice, mainly because of the availability to hotels and restaurants. For 2006 NASA has $100,000 available to sponsor New Orleans and Louisiana schools. By 2007 the goal is to have at least 10 teams from Louisiana. BLAST (Building Louisiana Science and Technology) a group of volunteers from major business and universities in the New Orleans area are providing the groundwork and support for getting the regional. This will involve getting the corporate sponsors necessary to fund an endeavor of this size. You guys at Gulfport (364) might like to get involved.