Location Suggestion for 2010 Championship

[dangerousdave]

Originally Posted by blackiceskier

hey what about the thought of new york city in madison square garden? plenty of seating hotels a plenty and pit space

It has been mentioned here and in other threads concerning another Championship location. Your standard basketball / hockey arena will not work. Also, what if the basketball or hockey teams are still playing in mid April? Where are you going to put 5 playing fields plus FLL and other events. Where will the pits be placed? Where will all of the people sit?

Those are just a few of the reasons that the Championship event requires a domed stadium next to or including a massive amount of floor space for the pits. You also need many thousands of hotel rooms near the event with rapid transit close by. An airport very close by that can handle 90 million passengers per year is also helpful. Hundreds of restaurants close by are also helpful. Atlanta easily meets this requirement.

We haven't even talked about the weather yet. Atlanta "almost" always has great weather for Championship's. Yes there have been a few times when the evening at the FIRST Finale party has been in chilly weather but overall the weather has been great for the entire 3 or 4 days.

There appear to be only a few cities that might meet this criteria, maybe Indianapolis or St. Louis? Some here have mentioned that the weather in those cities has been comparable to Atlanta weather in mid April but I can't say.

I am sure that the First staff involved with this type of decision making will make a good decision for the Championship event from 2011 and beyond. It has been fantastic having the event in my "back yard" for 6 years and I would love for that to continue. However, I am sure other cities that have the right facilities would also do a great job so best of luck to every city being considered!

Dave

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by blackiceskier

hey what about the thought of new york city in madison square garden? plenty of seating hotels a plenty and pit space

The $40 I had to pay to park @ the Javitt's center has clinched my disinterest in going to any more FIRST events in New York City.

[Elgin Clock]

The following are cities that offer an Airport to affiliated city train service just like Atlanta currently does.

This is the best thing Atlanta has over a lot of other cities in the past who have held The Championship Event in my opinion.

• Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport via MARTA
• Baltimore-Washington International Airport via the Baltimore Light Rail
• Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport via Cleveland Rapid Transit (the first direct rail connection in the United States)
• Chicago
  • O'Hare International Airport via the 'L' Blue Line
  • Chicago Midway International Airport via the the 'L' Orange Line
• Dallas Love Field via DART (under construction; scheduled to open in late 2010)
• McCarran International Airport via Las Vegas Monorail (under construction, scheduled to open in 2011)
• Mexico City International Airport via the Mexico City Metro's Line 5
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport via the Hiawatha Line
• Portland International Airport via MAX
• San Francisco International Airport via BART
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport via Central Link (under construction; scheduled to open in late 2009)
• St. Louis' Lambert-St. Louis International Airport via the St. Louis MetroLink
• Vancouver International Airport in Richmond (near Vancouver) via the Canada Line (under construction; scheduled to open in late 2009)
• Washington, DC's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia via the Washington Metro

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_rail_link

I would be willing to bet if The Championship Event ever moved, it would be one of the cities listed above for just this very reason.

[Rosiebotboss]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

The following are cities that offer an Airport to affiliated city train service just like Atlanta currently does.

This is the best thing Atlanta has over a lot of other cities in the past who have held The Championship Event in my opinion.


Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_rail_link

I would be willing to bet if The Championship Event ever moved, it would be one of the cities listed above for just this very reason.

That list is not completely accurate because Boston is not on it. Not that Boston could be considered becaus eit does not have a domed stadium.

What about Indianapolis? Does that have rail service from the airport?

[Zyik]

Looking back through the posts I see New Orleans being mentioned occasionally. It sure could use the economy boost. I visited in 2008 and stayed for a few days. It really is a wonderful city. There's 591 hotel results thrown up when I ask Google for Hotels near the Super Dome. Most seem to be easy walking distance, and as one who hiked all over looking at the sites I know that the streets aren't bad in the French Quarter. The disadvantage I see is that I don't believe it has a rail system like MARTA. What does anyone else think about it as a choice?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

That list is not completely accurate because Boston is not on it. Not that Boston could be considered becaus eit does not have a domed stadium.

What about Indianapolis? Does that have rail service from the airport?

Los Angeles isn't either. It's not a direct connection (yet?), but the LAX shuttle buses do go to the Metro Green Line, which is just off the airport. However, no domed football stadium here, so no good. (Unless there is one that I don't know about.)

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

What about Indianapolis? Does that have rail service from the airport?

No but we are used to organizing buses to take large numbers of youth downtown. We host the annual FFA convention every year and it's larger than FIRST.

[Donut]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

The following are cities that offer an Airport to affiliated city train service just like Atlanta currently does.

This is the best thing Atlanta has over a lot of other cities in the past who have held The Championship Event in my opinion.

This fact is why I was surprised to see Phoenix mentioned as one of the Finalists a few pages back. Phoenix has a venue now (the Arizona Cardinals stadium is across the street from the Phoenix Coyotes hockey arena, and there is a large convention center in one of the hotels in the same plaza), and a track record from hosting the recent Super Bowl and NCAA Football Championship, but the major thing still missing is a good transportation link to the airport. The stadium is at least a 20 minute drive from the airport, and although Phoenix just opened a light rail system it is not planned to connect to the stadium until 2017. In addition although we hosted a number of events most people for those big games had to be bussed over because there aren't enough hotels right by the stadium quite yet (and with no light rail line, no easy access to hotels a little further away).

I will say however that Phoenix would be an excellent location for the 2017 Championships and beyond


Anyway if a change of scenery can be made to the Championships without compromising its quality, I'm all for it.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Michelle Celio

Now, as for "Family Location". Have we looked at Disney Prices lately? They are not exactly family friendly. A base ticket, with expiration costs 79.88 for a one day ticket, and does not include park hopping. I'm sure they offer some sort of deal for large groups, but it probably won't be that much lower.

I haven't looked at it in years, but the packages Disney offered to teams were considerably more economical than regular visitors received when all things were considered. They could manage to do quite the same again, I'm sure.

I'm among the coaches that would love a return to Walt Disney World. I am not convinced that Houston or Atlanta offers anything that Disney couldn't compete with. Really, in many ways, it was quite a bit more special.

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by Madison

I haven't looked at it in years, but the packages Disney offered to teams were considerably more economical than regular visitors received when all things were considered. They could manage to do quite the same again, I'm sure.

I'm among the coaches that would love a return to Walt Disney World. I am not convinced that Houston or Atlanta offers anything that Disney couldn't compete with. Really, in many ways, it was quite a bit more special.

I know Disney does offer some amazing deals, but if they offered a "good" discount back in 2002, when a one day, expiration, no park hopping ticket was $48, that's an increase of 66.42%. So even if Disney were to of given teams tickets at $24 (50% off), tickets would now be around $40, 83% of a full price ticket back in 2002.

Either way, if we're not basing having the Championship purely on Florida's tourism industry, I'd love to see it back. (Who wouldn't want a 30 minute drive to the Championship each day and still be able to sleep in your own bed?) But there have been plenty of threads on that matter.

[Kevin Sevcik]

You could probably host it in Houston again at either Reliant Park, or the George R Brown Convention Center, provided you followed a different event layout/strategy than currently.

Specifically, forget all about the current methodology of having every single playing field in a giant stadium, cramming the divisional fields in as best you can around Einstein. It's ridiculous, since it's physically impossible to acoustically isolate the divisional fields in a space that open. You end up with a cacophony of fields talking over each other, seating that's only on one side of the field and often too far away, and money wasted on an Einstein setup that sits (mostly) unused for 2 days. Not to mention the pit to field walks for robots and spectators attempting to keep track of things.

Instead, go with a true divisional model. Rent out a convention center big enough to house 4 divisions of pits and fields. Put each division's field adjacent to its pit, with rented stadium seating, AV, etc. The fields can be separated enough and intimate enough to keep sound levels down and give the MCs a chance to actually be heard. Plus, walking times are ridiculously short, and you can have seating on either side of a field. When it comes time for the Finals on Einstein, move everyone to a nearby stadium/arena where Einstein has been set up the night before. Everyone always has to do the mass pit exodus for Finals anyways, so I don't think this is terribly different. If necessary, let divisional champs drag half their pit with them. You'll still get an awesome venue for the Finals action, without having to waste the space and equipment rental for it to sit idle for 2 days, plus you get a higher quality divisional experience. Granted, you don't have a convenient gigantic dumping space for superfluous team members, since divisional seating isn't going to have quite the overflow space of a huge stadium... but I think it'd work rather well.

Here's my specific pitch. Divisional competition in George R Brown CC. It should be easily sizable enough for 4 divisions and whatever extra FIRST goodness you want. It's also downtown, with lots of hotels and entertainment, and not any scarier than downtown Atlanta we're already dealing with. Einstein Finals to be held in the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets. It's huge, and FIRST has already shown that basketball arena are a good fit for FRC fields. After party to be held on the Discovery Green Park and/or Level 3 of the George R Brown CC.

You could do something similar with the Reliant Convention Center + Reliant Stadium, but the hotel situation isn't as nice, and Reliant Stadium is HUGE. Much like the Georgia Dome. The advantage of a basketball arena for the finals is that it ends up much much more intimate.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Michelle Celio

Being from the Greater Orlando Area, I can try to put a perspective on this.

There are two venues in the state of Florida, in the Orlando area, that could possibly be able to house the Championship.

There is one venue in the Kissimmee, The Silver Spurs Arena, that would be perfect, it would have less of a walk from the pits to the fields but we run into a lack of hotels for the teams in that area. However, as previously mentioned in the thread, when the consideration about hosting it in TX came up, we run into the same problem. Which is the lack of hotels. But, in the Kissimme and Orlando area, there is the Linx Bus System that is fairly inexpensive, and they do have 1-week passes available, the only thing is that they aren't heavily reliable and possibly could not handel the amount of traffic produced by the Championship.

Again, as mentioned earlier in the thread is the Orange County Convention Center. This place is HUGE. I High School, we went on a tour of just part of it, but I have not been able to see the entire place. There is defiantly enough room for the pits, and whatever FIRST wants to do that is convention style but I'm not exactly sure if they have a "stadium" of sorts where the field and spectators could easily view the matches. But, according to google maps, if you search "Orange County Convention Center" and "Hotels" and narrow it down to a "1 mile" radius, it says there are 717 hotels. That number seems a bit outrageous to me but the Orlando area is heavily populated with hotels.

Now, as for "Family Location". Have we looked at Disney Prices lately? They are not exactly family friendly. A base ticket, with expiration costs 79.88 for a one day ticket, and does not include park hopping. I'm sure they offer some sort of deal for large groups, but it probably won't be that much lower.


But hey, there is always the 2009 Florida Regional - and Disney is giving a free ticket to everyone in 2009, as long as it is your birthday.

OMG! having it at the Orange County Convention Center would be beautiful and like she said i is GIGANTIC!!!
i mean this place is massive!

[Akash Rastogi]

Joesey yo!


kidding aside, I'd love to have it in Indiana. Its like the heartland of FIRST.

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by lilstogi11

kidding aside, I'd love to have it in Indiana. Its like the heartland of FIRST.

wow- a trip to Indy in April -late spring snowstorms, cold, rain- what a treat

I'd prefer Orlando where we used to have it. It was warm, nice and kid oriented.

[yodameister]

If weather is to be a concern; Anaheim, Phoenix, Orlando, New Orleans, Dallas/Houston could be possible options as some have mentioned in this post or others.

And as a side note, I would prefer not to go to Atlanta.