SuperRegionals in 2008

[Dan Richardson]

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

Okay so, from what I have gathered, dang near everyone thinks there favorite event is going to be a super regional, or has thought it was going to turn into a super regional. I've heard kids/mentors from different events saying it. Ive heard the likes of Florida, UTC, and NJ, as well as a few others.
Now, I just wanna know where everyone gets this "Information." Has FIRST directly told any of these kids/mentors?
I doubt it.
From what I'd imagine, FIRST has no idea if there will be another superregional, ever.
This really just is a rant, but I guess the point I'm getting at in general is, don't post rumors as facts, unless you have hard evidence of the rumors being true.


(Sorry if this sounds mean/negative, it is not the intent, I've just heard it for a while now, and noticed someone posting it so matteroffactly in another thread, it kind of set me off.)

Yes on the case of Florida there is planning/fund raising to be a super regional. UCF will be finishing the Convocation Center in the next few months ( to be ready for the 07/08 basketball season which happens to coincide with FIRST ) When this is finished you will have a set up much like Relient Park in Houston. ( however much closer in proximety probably only ( 10 - 20 feet between the buildings ) The old arena will remain standing and act as the pits and the new ~10,000 seat state of the art arena will be the host to the fields.

The problem with set up of the super regional is three fold from what I understand. How do you run it? Do you run it as one large regional with 70-100 teams and just run shorter times between matches? Do you run it as two seperate divisions much like a smaller version of nationals? Or do you extend elims to the top 10? top 12? or top 16 teams? Have to be careful so that teams will still attend and not be detered by the maginitude of the event.

Second Problem is Funding, it is significantly more expensive than a normal regional. Imagine all the additional costs incured in, shipping the second field, unloading the extra crates and dryage, the extra lighting and sound rental etc. I heard a few numbers thrown around this a week ago, mainly by the Florida Committee chair and director of somewhere in the neighbor hood of an additional $70k-$80k.

Third is can you staff the event? There is a great effort for get volunteers to help run the events. With a super regional, you need super volunteers, and almost double the number. This is why at florida this year most every key position was doubled. You heard 4 announcers, 2 mcs.. many additional refs, field crew, robot inspectors, Volunteer Coordinators etc..

All three of these things are huge responsibility and the Florida Regional Committee is working hard to accomplish this goal. They've already announced to the regional that it will take place, now its just deciding the best way how. They have a great committee down here in Florida many of which I've talked with personally and every single one of them seems excited about the prospect of a larger Florida Regional.

Now as for will it happen? Only time will tell. It will be interesting to see come next november ( or whenever registration begins ) how many people will be able to sign for Florida, but I imagine that regardless of how many spots there are it may fill up just as quickly as it usually does.