Kickoff 2008 in NH - Who's going?

[Justin]

Okay time to mix it up a little amongst all this "kickoff love." I was just thinking the other day that Kickoff is kind of obsolete. I mean honestly ask yourself what do you get by going to kickoff that you couldn't get in some other way?

1- Seeing the game in person - Okay yes but you have to suffer through speech after speech from <insert random sponsor/FIRST exec here>, in most cases the same speech you will here 8 more times at the next 3 regionals you attend.Consider this: Let's send a each piece of the field to a different region and let the teams figure it out!

2- Dean's house - Okay for those who haven't been let me give you some tips Deans house isn't anything incredibly special. UNLESS you like to be crammed into a place like sardines, munching on marginal food in a helicopter hanger. Veteran Tip: The absolute best place to hear the speeches from are the copula.

3- The kit - Year after year teams head to kickoff and inevitably try to bring the kits on commercial airlines. Let's just make the TSA happy and pick up those kids at remote sites.

4- New Hampshire - REALLY? Have you ever been to Manchester folks? When the highlight of your night is drinks at JDs...yeeeeeah.

Consider for a moment what it costs to put kickoff on at minimum they have to pay the production company and then for Dean's house there are the Bedford Police, the bus drivers, and the caterer's. We could actually save money and the environment (if you're into that sort of thing think of the impact of that flight). All you really need for kickoff is a field, someone to explain it and an internet connection, for the webcast...here's another question why does it even need to be live just send out a video.

Okay now that the pot is sufficiently stirred my work is done here, just add hot water.

-Justin