Date change for Seattle Regional

[Anne Lam]

I've just noticed on the FIRST website that the date of the Seattle regional has been changed from March 14-16 to March 28-30. I've also noticed that many team who has signed up for the Seattle regional also signed up for the San Jose regional which will be held on the same day (March 28-30). Our team is one of many faced with this dillema. This will be a hard decision to make between the two and is causing us a ton of headache. Does anyone know why they have made this change? Where will your team go?

[Jason Morrella]

Anne,

Your concern is valid, and it is going to affect 10-14 teams who registered for multiple events, especially those who had registered for both San Jose and Seattle. I do know that FIRST did EVERYTHING in their power not to change the date, but there is very little they could have done about this situation. They lost the venue they had for the original date, and due to NCAA basketball and many other scheduled events in Seattle (and also that a couple of the main possible sites are under renovation) there was no possible venue for that weekend - I know they contacted virtually every convention center, arena, college, high school, and other venues in the region.

FIRST was finally able to pull some strings, (with a great deal of help from the Engineering Department at the University of Washington) and get the fabulous arena at UW. This was originally not an option until 2003, but the University stepped up big time, rescheduled some events, and is hosting the PNW regional this year, in 2002. The choice was either to cancel the regional until 2003 or take the only week available - which unfortunately is the same as San Jose.

I am glad FIRST is normally looking out for the best interests of the teams and trying to help teams cut costs as much as possible - which is why they went to such lengths NOT to cancel the event and at least help cut costs for the teams in the Pacific Northwest. I just hope teams can step back and try to understand the lengths FIRST goes to in trying to handle the logistics of these events and to provide 17 regionals in 5 weeks. It is a nearly impossible task, which I feel they do very well. Room for improvement? Of course - but I am sure they will look back after the season and make improvements, as they always do.

FIRST will be contacting your team leaders (of those teams registered for Seattle) to tell them what options they have and see which events they want to remain in. Hopefully everything will work out - I am sure it will. Give everything a week or two to sort out and see what happens - I'm sure FIRST will do everything they can to try to help the teams most affected by the date switch. They are VERY aware of how it impacts a number of teams.

Jason