Many inexpensive playing fields

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Posted by Mike King, Other on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater Raynham and Johnson & Johnson Professional.

Posted on 5/6/99 5:13 PM MST


In Reply to: Many inexpensive playing fields posted by Frank Toussaint on 5/6/99 11:47 AM MST:



: For qualifying matches we don't need a stage or large grandstand. Consider putting the playing field right on the ground, having only small bleachers, and have many such playing fields. This would offer the following advantages:
: 1) FIRST could plan as many playing fields as they wanted to get a desired number of matches conducted within a desired amount of time.
: 2) Since there are many matches at one time this will further reduce the size of the bleachers needed at each playing field.
: 3) With spectators spread out among many sets of bleachers, everyone will have a good seat. (No one should be allowed to kneel or stand between the playing field and the bleachers. Reserve the first few rows of the bleachers for the teams that are playing.)
: 4) Both the playing field and bleachers could be small enough to be indoors. (No more sitting in bright sunlight watching a match conducted in the dimness of the shade. No more sunburn. Rain? Ha! let it pour!)
: 5) As FIRST grows each year just add more playing fields. No need to restrict the number of teams attending the (inter)nationals.
: 6) There could be more qualifying matches per team! (And more practice rounds.)
: 7) As FIRST grows there could be 32 or 64 or more alliances in the elimination matches. This would take more time on Saturday but that's OK. We can finish the qualifying matches on Friday if there are enough playing fields. Alternatively, many elimination matches could be held simultaneously.

: The downside:
: 1) FIRST would need more officials, playing field assemblers, etc.

: Can you think of any other pros and cons?

Were we on field 31 or field 21? Which way is field 6??

Seriously, it would confuse the living bejebbers outta teams on where they should be, never mind the traffic nightmare it would create with FIRST trying to cooridnate all the fields.

Also, your forgetting something. Each field, (in this yeas comp) needs 4 Rnet's each. There would be a ceiling on how many Rnet's (or similar devices) FIRST could afford, and i'm not sure how many channels are in the spectrum.

Mike