Michigan Regional System: Who is asking the hard questions around here?

[pathew100]

This is how I understand the situation. With the amount of MI teams and the steady growth of teams, all 3 regionals in MI were full.

Even before the recession that has taken over the whole country, the economy in Michigan had been bad for years now. It would have been nearly impossible to raise funds from sponsors for another 'regular' regional in Michigan. And it would have been too much of a hardship for many teams to travel outside the state to compete.

Now Michigan can hold 8 events for the cost of 3. And every team can play in 2 events for the price of one and get more qualification matches per event, since the events are capped at 40 teams. This maximizes the cost/benefit ratio for the teams. And the "experience of FIRST" of learning/building/competing in the game is the (mostly) the same.

Can the system be improved? I'm sure it can. And I hope all the teams involved can have their say as they move forward.