Districts in Texas proposal sent to FIRST

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by ASD20

Basically, I am trying to say that the change in travel burden will, at a minimum, probably not be quite as bad as you think, if not make things easier for a lot of teams.

I agree that there will be several more competitions. And I wouldn't be surprised if it's more than the required 7. I also think that the travel burden will be easier for some teams (Many teams that used to only be able to do 1 event now being able to easily attend 2 district competitions within their home towns of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, or Houston, and maybe Lubbock with little to no cost increase) But I will be surprised if any pop up outside of Lubbock, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. The team density outside of any of those cities just doesn't justify having a district competition anywhere else, and I don't think anyone has experience running district events outside of those 5 cities. So I think for several teams, more competitions available just doesn't help, and requiring attendance at 2 district competitions may prove to be an insurmountable financial burden. I'm not sure how many teams are in west texas (I wish there was a google map with a dot for every team in texas, but I don't want to take the time to make that happen), but for a team in El Paso the two closest cities that have event experience are Lubbock (5.5 hrs away) and San Antonio (7.5 hrs away). If the point of districts is to have two competitions ideally within driving distance to eliminate the need for a hotel, then that's just not possible with a sustainable team density for the foreseeable future.

All that said - I'm strongly for districts. I think it helps a significant number of teams, helps the teams of Texas from a world champs standpoint, and I'm hopeful that the negative impact to teams will be non-existent or mitigate-able. I'm just think/hope that Texas districts is a set up to function a little different than existing models.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Coach Norm

+1

Lubbock or Alamo would be our priority since we havent done them before. We always planned to, just a matter of when.
Want to see your shop and visit your school also.

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Lubbock or Alamo would be our priority since we havent done them before. We always planned to, just a matter of when.
Want to see your shop and visit your school also.

Glenn,

It would be great to have you guys at either of those events.

Our shop is small currently. We are fortunate to be moving into some new space in about 3 weeks though. We would love to host you guys at WHS for a few days though. We could go check out some live music here in Austin.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Running out of places to play.

There's a very high probability that you'll have a place in Minnesota for the next few years. I love playing with you guys so that makes staying in the regional format a little better.

[asid61]

On one hand, I love district events and I think Texas moving to them is great.
On the other hand, no Texas teams in CA anymore. D:

[Link07]

Originally Posted by FIRST

We have met with our friends in other states and regions who have already adopted the District Model (Michigan, New England, Pacific Northwest, Chesapeake, Indiana, South Carolina, and Georgia) to learn from their experience so that we can make the best decisions for our state.

Guess nobody called Mid-Atlantic.

Feelsbadman

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Link07

Guess nobody called Mid-Atlantic.

Glad I wasn't the only one to notice that.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by Link07

Guess nobody called Mid-Atlantic.

Feelsbadman

Maybe we can have a revised email that goes "Our friends in other states and regions...and our acquaintances in MAR".

[Brian Maher]

I am happy to hear that more teams will be able to benefit from the district system. It is really great for teams, especially struggling ones. It is the next step forward for making FIRST sustainable in regions that can support a district. It'll be interesting to see how well the system works in an area as large as Texas.

Originally Posted by asid61

On the other hand, no Texas teams in CA anymore. D:

I wouldn't say no Texas teams in CA quite yet. District teams can still attend regionals, and a decent number do to travel, play with different teams, get some out-of-district practice, or qualify for CMP. Off the top of my head I know that in MAR 11, 87, 303, 1676, 2016, 2234, 2590, 3314, and 4575 competed at various regionals this year.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

I am happy to hear that more teams will be able to benefit from the district system. It is really great for teams, especially struggling ones. It is the next step forward for making FIRST sustainable in regions that can support a district. It'll be interesting to see how well the system works in an area as large as Texas.

Like you stated, the thing that will be interesting to me about Texas districts is there's a significant # of teams that don't have more than 1 event (currently) within 300 miles of them, and some of those don't have any event within 300 miles. If the normal district rules apply, forcing those teams to do two competitions in Texas could place a significant burden on them, or force something like Lubbock to host 2 district events back to back with many of the teams competing in both against a roster of teams that is mostly the same, or some other solution I have not heard of/thought of. There's a LOT of Texas that is not within a couple hours drive of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Houston.

[BSV]

As a team in Oklahoma looking at going to multiple regionals next year, that's going to kill most of our options. Arkansas and Kansas City are the only other nearby regionals (6 hours or less) besides OKC (2 minute drive). And KC and OKC were the same weekend last year. Texas is the entire landmass to our west and south.

I think that we'll need to attend the Hawaii Regional to make up for the loss of local Regionals.

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

Like you stated, the thing that will be interesting to me about Texas districts is there's a significant # of teams that don't have more than 1 event (currently) within 300 miles of them, and some of those don't have any event within 300 miles. If the normal district rules apply, forcing those teams to do two competitions in Texas could place a significant burden on them, or force something like Lubbock to host 2 district events back to back with many of the teams competing in both against a roster of teams that is mostly the same, or some other solution I have not heard of/thought of. There's a LOT of Texas that is not within a couple hours drive of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Houston.

A normalizing travel stipend would do it. They'd (FIRST in Texas) just have to redirect funds to support and/or raise additional funds towards that.

I know easier said then done on the raising of the additonal funds but my experience is it's very doable in Texas.

--Michael Blake

[macman828]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

Like you stated, the thing that will be interesting to me about Texas districts is there's a significant # of teams that don't have more than 1 event (currently) within 300 miles of them, and some of those don't have any event within 300 miles. If the normal district rules apply, forcing those teams to do two competitions in Texas could place a significant burden on them, or force something like Lubbock to host 2 district events back to back with many of the teams competing in both against a roster of teams that is mostly the same, or some other solution I have not heard of/thought of. There's a LOT of Texas that is not within a couple hours drive of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Houston.

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-a...=0 0FF00&mt=r

So 300 miles radius around Midland covers lots of ground.

a couple of 300 miles circles in Texas.
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/stat..." border="0"/>

[OccamzRazor]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

NC, SC: They are almost in the same place. Maybe SC is being absorbed by NC. [duck and cover mode on]

Then they better give me SC gas prices and fireworks! I used to live in Lake Wylie where I could live in NC and see SC from my porch. I will just say that it is totally different even 150 feet away. Just look at the roads

On topic, I think SC should go districts too. They are surrounded by districts and Palmetto was huge this year. I know several teams that would like those multiple plays without needing to travel for hours to get them!