SuperRegionals in 2008

[Justin]

I have to disagree that more teams by default equals a more exciting FIRST event. For my money some of the smaller events have been some of the more exciting. Take an event like BattleCry tons of excitement, incredibly intense competition and their are few enough people there that you can meet up with friends, make new ones, etc. With a large event, say the Nationals @ Epcot things just get to unmanageable you have to worry about which field your team is on when, it makes it harder see all the teams you want to see at an event, etc. I've always felt the part of the "charm of the old days of FIRST" that is missing is the intimate social feel you get from the smaller events of old like the DEKA New England Regional. With so many teams now it can become unwieldy quickly to keep track of them all, meet people, etc.

My $0.02,

Justin

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Chesapeake can also very easily expand. It's been mentioned a number of times in the thread that 70-80 teams are absolutely no problem on the site. From going in Halsey Field House itself, in my opinion, it seems barren with 50-65 teams (in other words, it's not crowded enough). And a second field can easily be supported.

The other thing I would love to see happen is a Super Regional at College Park in either the Comcast Center or Cole Field House, depending on whether the Terps play in the NCAA or NIT. I know there are tons of huge shows over at Cole Field House, so it will certianly not be a problem. The advantage is that it is just a relatively short walk from a potential team social site (Terp Zone). That could probably support 100-120 teams on 2-3 fields.

I'm pretty sure you could get the Dean of Engineering, Dr. Nariman Favradin; or even our president Dr. Mote (a mechanical engineer himself who's done a whole lot to improve Maryland). The only problem is hotels. I would reccomend staying away from college park, mostly because of the crime there.

[Doug G]

"SuperRegionals" absolutely makes sense to FIRST. I sit on the Davis-Sacramento Regional Planning Committee and it is tough for some of these regionals to raise the needed money to hold them. If you double the number of teams, the costs of putting it on do not double!! It's simply more economical. I was told by FIRST regional directors last year that they really wanted to figure out a way to increase the capacity of our Davis event to 50-60 teams by moving the pits to the third level of the event site. This type of vision has been in place for years and whether or not we'll see a big change at Davis, I bet we see the growth of some of the regional events real soon maybe next year

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Sgraff_SRHS06

Chesapeake can also very easily expand. It has been mentioned a number of times in the thread that 70-80 teams are absolutely no problem on the site. From going in Halsey Field House itself, in my opinion, it seems barren with 50-65 teams (in other words, it's not crowded enough). And a second field can easily be supported.

The other thing I would love to see happen is a Super Regional at College Park in either the Comcast Center or Cole Field House, depending on whether the Terps play in the NCAA or NIT. I know there are tons of huge shows over at Cole Field House, so it will certianly not be a problem. The advantage is that it is just a relatively short walk from a potential team social site (Terp Zone). That could probably support 100-120 teams on 2-3 fields.

I'm pretty sure you could get the Dean of Engineering, Dr. Nariman Favradin; or even our president Dr. Mote (a mechanical engineer himself who's done a whole lot to improve Maryland). The only problem is hotels. I would reccomend staying away from college park, mostly because of the crime there.

I don't think it will, or it should. There simply aren't enough teams at the moment to fill out 2 or 3 fields at any DC/Maryland venue. VCU drains too many teams, especially given the budget of most teams in the area limiting them to 1 or 2 events. This same problem applies to both the NYC and UTC regionals. There is no way without either directly closing other events, or draining them of teams, to fill a super regional. Closing ANY other event to create one larger event is almost always a bad idea, and I would not be happy to see NJ, VCU, Chesapeake, NYC, UTC, Boston, BAE, Peachtree, Bayou, Long Island close to support a "Super Regional" in NYC, Hartford, or Florida (or any other site). More teams doesn't mean more fun.