**FIRST EMAIL**/FIRST Adds District Event Model Alternative to FRC Program

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Michigan teams are going to get more plays per team, more bang for their buck while the rest of the country is still shelling out full price. Happy for my MI friends but quite frankly that sucks for the rest of us.

I asked about why regionals would not be ready to transition over yet and the biggest point made was the contracts which were arranged for different venues already. The only way there was a chance of being able to set up well run districts (according to my info) for 2010 would be to calculate if the savings from district events would be significant enough to break even with the cost of the already contracted venues for 2010. When calculated, the savings/profit from district events and championship events would not be able to break even with the cost of, in this case, the NJ regional and also bring in profit for FIRST.

Its just something to live with for another season, but I do see and understand your point. I too would have loved to pay a fraction of the cost and play a substantially greater number of matches.

Originally Posted by BrianT103

This area already has an extremely strong volunteer base and a very experienced technical crew.

This is very true, the NYC Regional alone has a volunteer base of nearly 300 people....that is incredible if you think about it.

One thing that I HOPE somehow changes...is the whole situation about not having practice matches...teams have been screwed over too many times when others are unprepared.

I hate being in qualification match #1