NASA's version of the "Heidi Bowl"

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Donut

If FIRST ever truly wants to get Nationals (or any competition) aired on national television, they are going to have to work out how to predict their time better. Some sports do go over their time slots, but they are usually cut after a certain time as well (I'm pretty sure a station will stop airing a baseball game if it goes into the 21st inning or something ridiculous like that). From what I read with the schedule FIRST went more than an hour over their prediction, which is more than even a football game played through an entire extra overtime does.

I'll admit though it wasn't fun having to run to the computer and bring up the webcast before the match started.

Back in the good ol' days, FIRST enjoyed some nice national converage of their competitions, and on none other than ESPN 2. One of my former teachers at my high school still has video tapes from the FIRST competitions in the 1990s from ESPN. Maybe I should see if he'll let me borrow them... and make copies of them... and maybe post the videos onto Google Video...

Those years in the mid 1990s when it was aired on ESPN were also the years that FIRST's National Championhips were held at the American Adventure pavillion in the back of EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World. The Disney company, which is the parent company of WDW, owns ESPN. So getting FIRST national coverage, and hence subliminal advertising for EPCOT, was not that hard.

Atlanta has CNN, but CNN is not really suited to host a Championship Event. As a breaking news channel they might show video clips and maybe send a reporter to the GA Dome, but they would only do short segments every hour or so, instead of steady coverage that NASA TV has [until the Finals...].