2009 Championships

[Corey Balint]

Currently, as much as I hate to say it (I dislike Atlanta...it is kind of boring...), Atlanta is perfect for what FIRST needs as it stands. As long as Atlanta will have FIRST, I am sure FIRST will stay there.

[Nawaid Ladak]

im surprised no one has mentioned my idea of San Antonio TX yet

Alamodome and the Gonzlez convention center. those two spaces could be used for fields and pitts

any supporters?

Riverwalk anyone??? :-D

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Tomasz Bania

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.

Runways don't really affect airfare very much. If you are going to talk about airport traffic as a benefit of Detroit then it falls behind Atlanta (world's busiest airport by passengers per year), Chicago (O'Hare), LA, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, NYC (JFC), Las Vegas, Houston (George Bush), Phoenix, Orlando and Newark.

However it is twice as busy as St. Louis and over 4 times as busy as Indy.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

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.

Both of which are rare occurances at their respective locations. It was 35 here when I woke up, part of the idea behind championships was that it was a celebration of the teams that did well, not just a really big regional. Nice, warm, weather in a safe environment is part of that celebration. Do you think we could hold the after party ouside in Detroit?

Stop preaching about how it'd be awesome if it was in your backyard just because you have so much hometown pride and realize that championships at that location just doesn't make much sense. Besides Atlanta, Orlando and Las Vegas are the only other really logicial locations.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

Both of which are rare occurances at their respective locations. It was 35 here when I woke up, part of the idea behind championships was that it was a celebration of the teams that did well, not just a really big regional. Nice, warm, weather in a safe environment is part of that celebration. Do you think we could hold the after party ouside in Detroit?

I think you misunderstand my point. I'm arguing against Detroit. The weather, while usually not snowy, is too unstable in April to consider. No, I don't think the party could be outside. Even if it was warm enough, chances are it would be raining.

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

Both of which are rare occurances at their respective locations. It was 35 here when I woke up, part of the idea behind championships was that it was a celebration of the teams that did well, not just a really big regional. Nice, warm, weather in a safe environment is part of that celebration. Do you think we could hold the after party ouside in Detroit?

Stop preaching about how it'd be awesome if it was in your backyard just because you have so much hometown pride and realize that championships at that location just doesn't make much sense. Besides Atlanta, Orlando and Las Vegas are the only other really logicial locations.

It's definately not hometown pride, as I personally am not the greatest fan of Detroit in it's current state. I'm just stateing that it is a "possible" location. I could argue out St. Louis just as much as from me seeing it First-Hand, they definately have the venue space (can't remember the names of the venues, but they seemed equivalent to Ford Field and Comerica Park).