The Future of the FIRST Championship- The FIRST Stadium

[Kevin Leonard]

I was recently thinking about the problems facing the future of FRC for both the community and for FIRST HQ.
-FIRST HQ wants to have 25% of FRC teams attend a championship level event, which currently means 800 teams attending championship.
-FIRST HQ wants FRC, FTC, and FLL at the same championship event.
-The FIRST Community wants to bring the top teams together for one event, because that's what makes the event so inspiring.
-The FIRST Community wants to crown a true championship alliance.

Whether or not you want or do not want any of the above, those are goals for a FIRST Championship by members of the community (and I know I missed some, but those are the big ones I thought of).

The problem, as discussed in many other threads, is that there is no location that could currently handle an 800-team FRC championship event, as well as the FTC and FLL Championship events/festivals.

Let's talk crazy- and I mean very crazy.

What if, with the help of many of FIRST's sponsors, friends, and benefactors, a new stadium was built with FIRST in mind for a championship event to be held in the post-championsplit era.

This stadium could be built with an exact plan in mind of how to organize and execute a championship event at that location.

To get a basic starting figure, the Edward Jones Dome, built today, would require $433 Million Dollars to build (according to Wikipedia) To account for inflation, as well as other things I haven't thought of, let's call it an even 500 million dollars.

That's obviously an absurd amount of money, even for Will.I.Am or Dean Kamen. But with the support from the right benefactor- say almost anyone on this list- it could easily become a reality.

This dome could be used at any other time of the year for other events, especially science and technology related events- like the championship events for other robotics competitions, and be used for anything FIRST wants.
It's possible that these events could help offset the costs of maintaining the stadium.

There's a number of other obvious problems as well, such as where to locate this stadium such that it satisfies a number of other criteria, like hotel space and a nearby airport hub, but those are all workable with the right consideration, planning, and benefactor involved.

I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of feedback along the lines of "You're crazy", and you'd probably be right. But something like this could not only solve FIRST's championship problems, it could also serve to legitimize FIRST as a sport with it's own stadium and supporters and sponsors.

Thoughts?