Location Suggestion for 2010 Championship

[Zflash]

Weather should be a concern. As far as location I love Atlanta, however I admit bias we are only a few hours drive away. However I can comment on the three venues that I have attended the Championships. Epcot Center parking lot was great. It was held in air condidtioned tents that were close to pits and a large outdoor space that was open to the weather for the Einstien field. There were plenty of ways to get there bus, monorail or car. Houston Texas was the second one I attended. And I went by bus with the team. In my opinion it was held there only one year because it was very unsafe to load the pit area. They had an extremly long and steep ramp that led down to the floor of the pits. Not to mention the walk between the pits and the stadium for robots was a series of winding uphill ramps that were difficult to navigate going both ways. Getting there by bus or car was easy too. And Atlanta which everyone knows but not everyone loves. Atlanta is great except for the traffic it has plenty of room for the teams and is an easy walk between field and pits. Not to mention it is inside as well. Between the three I would like to see them pull off a Epcot Center type deal again or get a venue that is "Atlantaesque."

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

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.

It's Indy not Minneapolis.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

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.

FIRST needs to grow a pair and play hardball with the hurting Disney right now and get some good rates for their rooms. Bookings are down year over year, who wouldn't want about ten THOUSAND people guaranteed in rooms for about a week that will buy park admission, eat, and buy stuff?

I say Indy though becase they are courting FIRST, and knowing FIRST's somewhat passive nature, they will go with them. I was in Indy this past summer for GAC and had lots of fun. There is a great shopping area, a GameWorks, several large hotels, lots of cheap/well priced food, and for those my age, bars.

I have a good feeling FIRST will not be going back to Atlanta mainly due to the crime in the area. My sister saw a guy get shot in Centenial Park.

[Zflash]

1319 has to traveled to Indiana for the Boilermaker regional twice. The people running that event were great. Indiana was great and if there is an "Atlantaesque" venue then I am sure 1319 would attend if possible. As far as crime goes sadly that is everywhere and I don't think FIRST can do much about that. Other then keeping the youngens off the street building robots!

[waialua359]

I think if it was up to the students, they would pick Orlando/Disney World in a heartbeat!

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

FIRST needs to grow a pair and play hardball with the hurting Disney right now and get some good rates for their rooms. Bookings are down year over year, who wouldn't want about ten THOUSAND people guaranteed in rooms for about a week that will buy park admission, eat, and buy stuff?

I say Indy though becase they are courting FIRST, and knowing FIRST's somewhat passive nature, they will go with them. I was in Indy this past summer for GAC and had lots of fun. There is a great shopping area, a GameWorks, several large hotels, lots of cheap/well priced food, and for those my age, bars.

I have a good feeling FIRST will not be going back to Atlanta mainly due to the crime in the area. My sister saw a guy get shot in Centenial Park.

Rooms don't matter if there's no venue. I don't see FIRST shelling out to erect another tent city when they now need to include a massive number of FLL and FTC teams. Back in 2002 I remember the lego league area being like a small corner of one tent. Now it's huge. FTC is equally large.

I think Atlanta is a great venue, but the city leaves a lot to be desired. There's not really anything for the kids to do after the event, as everything closes early (the mall, the CNN center, etc) I've never had the concerns about safety that other people have. I've never felt any less safe in Atlanta than I have in San Francisco, San Jose, New York, LA, or any other major city.

The problem is Disney was too perfect for the teams. If we had never gone to Disney and we had been in Atlanta all this time, we probably wouldn't be enjoying it any more than we do now, but we wouldn't have anything better to compare it to.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Cory

Rooms don't matter if there's no venue. I don't see FIRST shelling out to erect another tent city when they now need to include a massive number of FLL and FTC teams.

Before my post was erased accidentally before posting, I mentioned this little ditty as a solution to that.

[GeorgeTheEng]

I love this discussion every time it comes up. And it seems to come up 3 to 4 times per year. There are specific requirements that come up that generally have to be met, but that wasn't the point I wanted to make today.

Are thier places that could compete with Atlanta? Yes. Are those places that offer FIRST a substantial advantage to move? But substantial I mean significant new capabilities, more/better space (at the same cost), the existing capabilities at much lower cost? Given the size of championship and what it takes to put it together, FIRST has invested a lot of social capital in Atlanta. They know the area, they know the service providers, they have relationships with the organizations in the community. From thier standpoint, there is significant risk to move versus maintaining status quo.

Plus you have little thinks that make life easier for those planning the event (and trust me it take a momumental effort to plan that event). It easier to take an existing floor plan and tweak it (say for the pits) then to develop a new one from scratch. Things like that.

A new location could be interesting, but currently I don't see the drivers being strong enough to push FIRST in that direction.

As for Canada... Or anyplace else north of say Chicago... How about someplace where it won't snow during the event?

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by GeorgeTheEng

Are thier places that could compete with Atlanta? Yes. Are those places that offer FIRST a substantial advantage to move? But substantial I mean significant new capabilities, more/better space (at the same cost), the existing capabilities at much lower cost? Given the size of championship and what it takes to put it together, FIRST has invested a lot of social capital in Atlanta. They know the area, they know the service providers, they have relationships with the organizations in the community. From thier standpoint, there is significant risk to move versus maintaining status quo.

Ah yes because FIRST is never willing to put all of the comfort of something good, past relationships to the wind to go for something more expensive and unknown risking their status quo.....cough cough control system cough cough

[Rich Kressly]

From my viewpoint, there are two possible ways to look at the future of the championship.

1. Current or similar structure = domed stadium which limits you to only a few places in the country. As far as investing social capital to get this done, Indy seems like the only other viable possibility in the near future to compete with Atlanta.

2. Look differently at the event in terms of number of teams to attend and number/how other FIRST programs are involved. If this is a possibility, I'd love to see an earnest effort made toward Disney again. It was, as Madison said, very special. And, more importantly for me, I sold my wife on FIRST in 2002 based on, "Hey look at it this way. We might have an option to take the kids to Disney every year." Oops, I guess I spoke too fast on that one

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Ah yes because FIRST is never willing to put all of the comfort of something good, past relationships to the wind to go for something more expensive and unknown risking their status quo.....cough cough control system cough cough

Hmmm ... Sour grapes? or just upset because they've taken you out of your comfort zone?

Now if you have some constructive criticism (and not just criticism) we'll be glad to hear it and discuss it.

Back on topic: Both Indy and St.Louis would be good alternatives to Atlanta, but, to be honest, unless there is a compelling reason to leave Atlanta, why would FIRST leave?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Hmmm ... Sour grapes? or just upset because they've taken you out of your comfort zone?

Now if you have some constructive criticism (and not just criticism) we'll be glad to hear it and discuss it.

I think Greg just forgot his sarcasm tags.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by DarkFlame145

maybe the Sun Dome in Tampa?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!

The USF Sun Dome is the location of TNT and the local schools' graduation, and it fits that, but for 400 teams you can't even fit the pits in there. The one at UCF (still the Sun Dome) is the location of the FL regional, and again it is fit for that, and maybe the pits for the Championship, but not the whole event.

[DarkFlame145]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!

The USF Sun Dome is the location of TNT and the local schools' graduation, and it fits that, but for 400 teams you can't even fit the pits in there. The one at UCF (still the Sun Dome) is the location of the FL regional, and again it is fit for that, and maybe the pits for the Championship, but not the whole event.

just throwing it in there cause it's close to me =P

[Herodotus]

Mars.

...


Anyone? Oh well, maybe we'll have to shoot for that in 2011.

Really though, I think Atlanta seems like the perfect setup for the Championship. The only way it could get better is if maybe someone built a FIRST Dome somewhere *nudge nudge, hint hint, wink wink*