New York Districts?

[Dominick Ferone]

I was wondering, I heard the plan is for most places to be district by 2017. Has anyone heard more about New York? The slight challenge may be that it's almost split into three major sections where there are teams. Western/Nortern New York, NYC/Long Island and then the Capital district. But the leaves central New York out somewhat as they aren't as rapidly grown. Also where would the best place to hold District champs be?

[Kevin Leonard]

This is actually a really important subject that the state needs to discuss sometime soon.
New York as a district is complicated in a number of ways.
As Dominick said, New York's FRC teams can be split into three major regions: Western NY, NY and Long Island, and Central NY and the Capital District.

NY currently hosts four regionals: The Finger Lakes Regional, The New York Tech Valley Regional, The New York City Regional, and the SBPLI Long Island Regional.

FLR is often visited by teams from Ontario, TVR this year was visited by teams from Ontario, NE, and MAR, NYC is traditionally visited by numerous international teams due to NYC's history as a hub for tourism, and SBPLI additionally hosted international teams recently.

New York not only faces a problem of teams having to travel distances for events, but also the problem of having teams often visit these events from other areas.

Proposal 1: New York as one district
The basic proposal is to make New York into one giant district. This is not impossible. A district championship could be located in either Syracuse, Albany, or NYC fairly well.
This proposal hurts FIRST's growth abroad, as teams from other countries who traditionally travel to any of the events in NY will have to find new regionals to attend.
It is also difficult to travel to district Champs for many teams regardless of where you locate the DCMP.

Proposal 2:The Upstate New York District
Upstate NY becomes it's own district, with a District Champs located in Syracuse. This leaves NYC and SBPLI as an area with Regionals, and forces teams that had been attending TVR or FLR from Long Island to go elsewhere. Upstate New York also has a much smaller amount of teams without the City.

Proposal 3:New York joins nearby districts
A few proposals I've seen merge Western New York with either Ohio or Ontario for districts. The capital Region could then merge with New England. This leaves many central New York teams in a state of limbo, having to either join one of the two districts, or stuck in-between.
This also leaves NYC/LI without districts.
EDIT: Or with NYC/LI as a part of MAR.

I don't know which is best for the state or for FIRST, and I don't know what other proposals exist.

[Link07]

One interesting thought is the idea of expanding MAR to include New York City/Long Island once everywhere is switching over to districts.

[Dominick Ferone]

There is also a possibility of incorporating Pennsylvania.and/or making the whole northeast one big district.
Incorporate MAR, New England,New York, Penn. into s super district which would incorporate Roughly 525 teams.

[EricDrost]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

There is also a possibility of incorporating Pennsylvania.and/or making the whole northeast one big district.
Incorporate MAR, New England,New York, Penn. into s super district which would incorporate Roughly 525 teams.

A DCMP as big as MSC probably shouldn't be the goal.

That being said, I'd be happy with MAR absorbing NYC and LI. It would force MAR to move the district championship closer to the geographic center than out in the middle of NOWHERE in Pennsylvania.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by EricDrost

It would force MAR to move the district championship closer to the geographic center than out in the middle of NOWHERE in Pennsylvania.

If there are any viable options for this, please let me know...

Man I feel bad for that one team far up north...

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Hallry

If there are any viable options for this, please let me know...

Man I feel bad for that one team far up north...

That's 229 at Clarkson. While it's not great, they already travel large distances to make it to both of their events. This year they attended NYC and TVR.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

That's 229 at Clarkson.

TIL where Clarkson is. For some reason I always thought it was near Rochester. Thanks.

[smistthegreat]

I was on mobile earlier, but I finally have the time to type up something a little more thorough. There are a few options currently available to New York.

1. The entire state forms one district. As discussed in this thread, if DCMP is not in NYC, it puts a huge strain on the city teams. If DCMP is in the city, upstate teams have a bit of a travel issue, but it's certainly possible. Another possible issue is finding enough places to put district competitions. You would have Rochester, Troy, maybe Buffalo or Syracuse, and then 4 or 5 events in the city/on the island.

2. Upstate New York forms one, Indiana-sized district. District events in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Troy, with DCMP basically taking the place of the current FLR. In this case, downstate would be left in a bit of a pickle.

3. Western New York joins with Ohio, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania. Again, this only solves the problem for the upstate teams.

[Matt_Boehm_329]

Originally Posted by smistthegreat

I was on mobile earlier, but I finally have the time to type up something a little more thorough. There are a few options currently available to New York.

[snip]
2. Upstate New York forms one, Indiana-sized district. District events in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Troy, with DCMP basically taking the place of the current FLR. In this case, downstate would be left in a bit of a pickle.
[snip]

If you had upstate NY as its own district NYC and LI combined could easily field enough teams for their own as well.

[Kevin Leonard]

Personally I prefer the whole state become one district. Most NYC/Long Island Teams won't need to come to DCMP, and the ones that do can be accommodated for or decline the invitation. Teams aren't required to attend DCMP, after all. Regardless of whether they attend DCMP, teams will be getting double the competition for the same amount of money.

I think the only three locations that could be considered for a district championship are Syracuse, Albany, and New York City. All three have their share of issues. I think Albany would make the most sense due to its central location for all teams in the state. With the great support from local companies like GE and GlobalFoundries, as well as maybe support from FIRST HQ, its possible we might be able to subsidize or at least help the teams with less resources be able to travel to the district championship if they qualify.

If this one isn't possible, either of the other two discussed options are fine as well. New York could really use districts as soon as possible. Some fantastic teams are missing out on a championship because they didn't win, and some others are struggling, barely able to attend one event. Districts would help solve both of these problems, as well as make the state mor competitive on a global scale.

[cgodzyk]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Man I feel bad for that one team far up north...

We actually have two teams up here, 229 and 5240, they're on top of one another, so its not just one team!

[Alex2614]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

There is also a possibility of incorporating Pennsylvania.and/or making the whole northeast one big district.
Incorporate MAR, New England,New York, Penn. into s super district which would incorporate Roughly 525 teams.

The plan is for Pennsylvania to go with Ohio, along with West Virginia and possibly western Kentucky. This was the proposal last I heard.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

I was wondering, I heard the plan is for most places to be district by 2017. Has anyone heard more about New York? The slight challenge may be that it's almost split into three major sections where there are teams. Western/Nortern New York, NYC/Long Island and then the Capital district. But the leaves central New York out somewhat as they aren't as rapidly grown. Also where would the best place to hold District champs be?

I'm not seeing any challenges, the 152 teams in the PNW district are spread out across 170,000 sq mi compared to the 147 team in NY spread out across 55,000 sq mi. We have three areas where the majority of teams are concentrated though one of those has a really high concentration. We hold a number of events in the area with the highest concentration, a few less in the area with lower concentration, one in the area with a good concentration and a couple in more outlying areas. Additionally FIRST is likely to eventually move to a system where district points are portable, so going to an event outside of your district will allow you to bring your points home assuming that it is your 1st or 2nd event chronologically.

Personally I'd say that the 150 ish team district is just about perfect. It allows for growth and the ability to hold the necessary events in 5 weeks and a DCMP in week 6 to allow teams sufficient time to prepare for CMP. Once growth exceeds that 10 event limit then it can switch to a 4 week district season with a week to prepare for DCMP or a RCMP.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I'm not seeing any challenges, the 152 teams in the PNW district are spread out across 170,000 sq mi compared to the 147 team in NY spread out across 55,000 sq mi. We have three areas where the majority of teams are concentrated though one of those has a really high concentration. We hold a number of events in the area with the highest concentration, a few less in the area with lower concentration, one in the area with a good concentration and a couple in more outlying areas. Additionally FIRST is likely to eventually move to a system where district points are portable, so going to an event outside of your district will allow you to bring your points home assuming that it is your 1st or 2nd event chronologically.

Personally I'd say that the 150 ish team district is just about perfect. It allows for growth and the ability to hold the necessary events in 5 weeks and a DCMP in week 6 to allow teams sufficient time to prepare for CMP. Once growth exceeds that 10 event limit then it can switch to a 4 week district season with a week to prepare for DCMP or a RCMP.

The problem is that a large number of the teams from New York City have very, very, limited resources, making even a 2-3 hour drive with a team and a robot for many of them very difficult.

The NYC FIRST community is awesome the way they support each other to allow some of the teams to even attend just the NYC event.

However if they had to travel to Albany for a district championship, many would be unable to.