**FIRST EMAIL**/2010 Championship Wait List Information

[Eric O]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

I agree with you that we'd probably all much prefer that FIRST immediately pull from the waitlist to fill open slots as they come available, not do it in bulk a couple of weeks before Atlanta.

7 teams that signed up for one of the open berths at Championships have already dropped out.

First off, I do appreciate FIRST sharing this information and hope they continue to become more transparent.

However, I noticed the same thing that Mark did and think it’s ridiculous. During initial registration FIRST allowed 175 teams to sign up for the Championship. Now 7 teams have dropped out, and that number is now 168. According to the email, they are going to wait until the middle of March to fill these spots with the waitlisted teams. Why are they waiting this long? If FIRST wants to save teams money they should tell the next team on the waitlist that they are into an event as soon as possible. Assuming these 7 teams have 30 people each and booking travel mid December vs. mid March saves each person $50 in travel, which equates to over $10,000 in unnecessary expense.

I have a feeling that more teams will drop especially as the payment deadline nears and passes. Even if they waited until the end of January to replace the drop outs it would leave those teams over 2 months to book travel.

-Eric