2009 Championships

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

NO!

Just because it's close to you doesn't make it better!

I think I can speak for a lot of people, if I'm walking around a lot outside to-from hotel and between various other places, I'M NOT DOING IT IN THE COLD. End of story. Same with rain. I'd love to see them move to someplace up north and have everyone comlpain about the high being 50, finally putting this issue to bed. Hell, I'd STOP GOING if moving around champs would make me feel terrible.

Atlanta is perfect (except for the crime, oops) with the weather, price, hotels, location, etc.

Weather???? Not exactly sure what to say about that, but i'm sure stuff in Atlanta had to be shifted to accomidate FIRST, and expecially with so many teams in Michigan there would be a great driving force to do so in Detroit. St Louis would have to be my other choice, as it is more centralized but all places do have their up sides and down sides.

[Corey Balint]

Originally Posted by Tomasz Bania

Weather???? Not exactly sure what to say about that, but i'm sure stuff in Atlanta had to be shifted to accomidate FIRST, and expecially with so many teams in Michigan there would be a great driving force to do so in Detroit. St Louis would have to be my other choice, as it is more centralized but all places do have their up sides and down sides.

If Nationals/Championships was held in Detroit, I am 100% positive I wouldn't go. It is just not a safe city. There are far too many horror stories for a lot of school districts to allow there kids to go.

I don't care if it is centralized or not. The most important thing is how cheap it will be to get there. I'm sure NY, Florida, Boston, LA, Las Vegas would be much cheaper (transportation and hotel) than St. Louis, Detroit, Indy...etc.

[Dancin103]

I would love it if Championships was in Disney. Disney has plenty of room to hold a FIRST championship. It would be so fun!

[TD78]

Originally Posted by Dancin103

I would love it if Championships was in Disney. Disney has plenty of room to hold a FIRST championship. It would be so fun!

It's not so much the room with Disney (as they have plenty of it), it's the venue. Where would you hold the fields and pits? This was done back in 2002 and before in tents, but we've outgrown those tents and now need something on the order of the GA Dome and GWCC to fulfill our needs.

[Justin]

Not sure if this has been covered but...

When considering Disney consider that there's one key criteria that it doesn't meet. When last we saw Disney as home to Nationals* there was only FRC to contend with and the limits of what Disney could put together in terms of a temporary compound were already over extended. Now consider that we have, FRC, FTC, FLL to contend with. As far as I know, they didn't a few years ago, Disney lacks pretty severely in terms of an adequate arena. Their rain plan for Einstein back in those days was "here's a cute Mickey Poncho, enjoy the competition." Also as someone who was overrun by the extreme heat and humidity one of the years I was down there the climate controlled Georgia Dome certainly has its merits.

Of course Disney holds a special place in the heart of old school FIRSTers and it is Disney there's lots to do, lots of hotel space.

Try This!! For those of you students who weren't around for Disney walk up to someone who was there back in 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, especially student alumni. Simply throw this at them and see what happens "Please stand clear of the doors..."

-Justin

*It was actually called that back then ;-)

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by RollinTDollin

It's not so much the room with Disney (as they have plenty of it), it's the venue. Where would you hold the fields and pits? This was done back in 2002 and before in tents, but we've outgrown those tents and now need something on the order of the GA Dome and GWCC to fulfill our needs.

The new Jolstens Center in the Wide World of Sports should work for the Fields (6 basketball courts = 6 fields). I'm sure they could find some space for the pits in the rest of that complex.

[KTorak]

I think next year will be the last year in Atlanta. I also wouldn't be surprised if it moved back to Orlando.

[BiTurboS4]

Originally Posted by Tomasz Bania

To cover the bases based on Detroit:

-venue large enough to house both 5 full playing fields plus FTC fields.
-either same or separate facility to house pits for 300+ FRC teams, 100 FTC teams, FLL teams, plus pit admin, practice fields, etc.

I know Detroit has been looked at several times and actually has 2 suitable venue combinations.

The first combination is using Cobo Hall as the pits, and using Cobo Arena and Joe Louis Arena for the fields or additional pit space. There are several other buildings attached to this, but can't remember any notable ones off the top of my head.

The other combination I heard was to use Ford Field for the Field and use Commerica Park (w/tents) for the pits.

-enough hotels in close proximity (walking distance) to house 500+ teams (students, teachers, parents, mentors) plus VIPs and staff.

Hotels would not be a problem as there are countless hotels in Downtown (including the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere) and many more in the area (including all the new hotel rooms created by last years Casino remodeling blitz.

The Finale could be held at Campus Marcius park in Downtown Detroit.

These buildings are all very close to people mover transportation and the combination can be switched around to convenience FIRST's needs.

-major international airport

Detroit Metro Airport is a Top Ten airport in North America and number 19 in the World, with just enough traffic to make it a large airport, but is big enough to handle large traffic Volumes (Example: Superbowl XL). Highway transport to and from the airport is a breeze, and other major ground transportation is available.

-enough restaurants and food places in the area to feed above mentioned people for a week.

299 Restaurants in the Greater Detroit Area according to http://detroit.diningguide.com/dl1dm.htm

-entertainment in the area to keep teams entertained at night (ie. Georgia Aquarium, Braves games, etc).

A few off the top of my head:
-Henry Ford Museum
-Greenfield Village
-Rouge Ford Factory Tour
-Many Theaters
-and hundreds of other attractions (including Dave and Busters) in the Metro Detroit Area.

Tomasz Bania

Sorry, the last time I was the Detroit regional, my confidence in my safety was not there. Nor did I ever feel comfortable walking around the GM building at night. So i'd say SKIP on Detroit as a new Championship site.

[Corey Balint]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

The new Jolstens Center in the Wide World of Sports should work for the Fields. I'm sure they could find some space for the pits in the rest of that complex.

The layout does not look like it would allow for proper seating. I'm also not too sure if Disney would like thousands of people walking around on their well kept sod, destroying it and beating it down.

[TD78]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

The new Jolstens Center in the Wide World of Sports should work for the Fields (6 basketball courts = 6 fields). I'm sure they could find some space for the pits in the rest of that complex.

Cool place. It could no doubt hold all the fields. Now...where to put all the people...

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by KTorak

I think next year will be the last year in Atlanta. I also wouldn't be surprised if it moved back to Orlando.

Great. Just great. The only major airports in the US that are farther from here than Atlanta are all in Florida.

I tell you, Denver is a great town...

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

I don't care if it is centralized or not. The most important thing is how cheap it will be to get there. I'm sure NY, Florida, Boston, LA, Las Vegas would be much cheaper (transportation and hotel) than St. Louis, Detroit, Indy...etc.

On what do you base this assumption? I bet you would be surprised.

[Corey Balint]

Originally Posted by IndySam

On what do you base this assumption? I bet you would be surprised.

I'm sure you could definitely get some cheap rates if you booked early or late in some cases...but still. Package deals are offered to most of the places I listed that would allow for many more teams to be able to go. They will be consistently cheaper than the others.

Some of those other places could also draw more sponsors to go. If you are potential sponsor deciding between two events to go to and you see one event is being held in Detroit/Atlanta and the other is in Vegas/Florida/NYC...where would you go?

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

... move to someplace up north and have everyone comlpain about the high being 50, ...

50 is a warm day in Detroit in mid-April. We had snow on the way to Atlanta in 2004, and on the way back in 2007.

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

If Nationals/Championships was held in Detroit, I am 100% positive I wouldn't go. It is just not a safe city. There are far too many horror stories for a lot of school districts to allow there kids to go.

This undeserved reputation would be a detriment for holding it in Detroit. The areas around either Cobo or Ford Field are as safe as any major city. However, despite what Tomas says, the facilities just aren't up to it here. We'd either have to have two divisions each in separate buildings 1/2 mile apart (with pits in between) or have the pits outside in tents in 40-50 degree weather. It's not going to happen.

Originally Posted by Dancin103

I would love it if Championships was in Disney. Disney has plenty of room to hold a FIRST championship. It would be so fun!

Disney was a lot of fun when the Nationals were there. It simply does not have enough room for what the Championship has become. There were 20 FLL teams there as an exposition - VEX hadn't even been thought up yet - and they had to make their presentations in the hallway as FRC teams moved to and from the pits. "ROBOT, Robot coming through!" Even if it was still just FRC, I doubt they could handle the 246 teams guaranteed spots from the regionals, let alone allowing any other teams to register.

As this thread comes up year after year, we need to continue to remember the minimum needed just to run the event:

• Fully enclosed football-size stadium for competitions
• Ability to seat 20000 spectators on one side of the field for finals
• Attached convention center for pits
• Multiple meeting rooms for judging, symposium sessions, etc.

After that, we can think about hotels, transportation, extra-curricular things to do and see, etc.

Atlanta has it. It sounds like Indy and St Louis might also have it, but with cooler weather. Anywhere else?

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by BiTurboS4

Sorry, the last time I was the Detroit regional, my confidence in my safety was not there. Nor did I ever feel comfortable walking around the GM building at night. So i'd say SKIP on Detroit as a new Championship site.

I do agree that the place where the Detroit Regional is held is not nessearily the best-looking, but it is not downtown. Expain to me how you would see Ford Field and Comerica Park as an unsafe spot. Just like in Atlanta (and most every city), there are good spots and bad spots. Everyone is just getting the view of "Ohh... Detroit, well isn't that a horrible City?", but downtown Detroit is nice and I can guarantee that flying to Detroit is going to be one of the cheaper places to fly because of it's high capacity and efficiency (if you want to look at it runway wise, it has 6 runways, with 7th underway, which would tie it for most runways in the US (AFAIK), but terminal wise it has over 122 gates in one terminal alone). As Gary said, I am not figuring out the full logistics of this, but "theoretically" couldn't Ford Field house 5 Fields and Couldn't Cobo Arena and Joe Louis combined hold 5 fields, just for the sake of argueing? Weather is my only true reservation about Detroit, but as we see with Atlanta, anything is possible.