Sarah, that is probably the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_population) for MAR. Sean is right that Lehigh probably pretty close on the geographic center for an area that extends as far west as Harrisburg, as far north as Tunkhannock, PA (north of NJ) and as far south as Middletown, DE.
That doesn’t mean I like booking a hotel to volunteer there, Temple was a shorter commute for me than any district. However, I am interested to see a new venue. Maybe we will keep changing venues as needed.
It doesn’t matter that Harrisburg or Tunkhannick are a part of MAR if there are no teams there; so I found the center of all 2013 teams in MAR. I used this list of teams: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqCax1FanfCIdEV5S1ZzVlR6MU9Md1hSRi1GSmNHZkE#gid=22
And this list of coordinates: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1176459&postcount=25
I found the center of all MAR teams to be 40.39724, -74.8769 (somewhere in Lambertville, NJ).
This is:
32.3 miles to the Liacouras Center in Philidelphia,
28.5 miles to Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, and
14.2 miles to the Sun National Bank center in Trenton.
Interestingly, the new MAR championship is closer to the center of teams than the old MAR championship.
222 is from Tunkhannock.
2559 is from Harrisburg.
I know that there are teams from those places, they were part of my calculations. My statement was meant to be taken rhetorically; some places have more teams than others and should have more weight in choosing a spot for MAR championships. The geographic center of a region doesn’t matter; its the population center that does.
Actually, what are they all? The team-weighted center, the geographic-based center, and the team-size-weighted center are all different means of answering the same question. All are justifiably as valid.
Another would be the team-funding-inverse-weighted center, basing the weight of a team off of the inverse of it’s funding, thus giving less-well funded teams more weight due to their difficulties in traveling.
its Lambertville 
Good idea.
Here, 40.38577925, -74.95323414, is the center weighted by average district score. After all, why should a team’s location matter if they don’t attend the championships? Either way, it’s still in Lambertville, just a little farther west, suggesting that the good teams are pretty evenly distributed over MAR.
The inverse-funding center sounds like the best idea, but unfortunately I don’t think that that information is publicly available. I tried to replicate it by finding the inverse-size-of-sponsor-list center. I know that some sponsors give more than others and that this isn’t perfect, but hopefully the size of the sponsor list roughly correlates to team funding. Anyway, that center is 40.44366073, -74.80339903. It’s in a place called Ringoes, NJ. It’s a little farther north and a little farther east than the center of teams.
Another possible metric to use (that I don’t know how to determine, so I’ll let you guys who do know do it) to compare these locations, is take the team list from MAR Championships last year, or even the team list from NJ/PA regionals in years past(obviously excluding teams from outside the MAR area).
The problem with that metric is that many teams declined to attend MAR championships because of the distance last year. MAR had to go down the rank 64th team just to get 53 to attend. If teams that can’t attend because of distance are not counted then we generate a feedback loop and move MAR championships further away from them again.
The center of teams that attended MAR championships last year is 40.32755, -74.9932. It is further south and west than the other centers I calculated. It’s in New Hope, PA.
It is also important to note that one of the goals of MAR is to help grow FRC participation in the supported region. I don’t think anyone would disagree that the MAR Champs this year is in a lower team population area. By holding the event in such an area there is a greater chance of new teams being formed there than say in Philly, where there are already many teams with much smaller room to grow new teams.
Well, we could always build a new arena in Lambertville…
I think the reason for choosing Lehigh for this years MAR championship is because the arrangements were more favorable than what Temple was offering.
While the Philly burbs are pretty well tapped out, there’s still a fair bit of potential for growth in the city itself. Especially if you include restarted disbanded teams.
I can’t agree more. Out of the 45 high schools in the Philadelphia School District, only 4 have FRC teams. Partly this is because of budget limitations, but most of these schools probably have never heard of FIRST.
222 is happy we only have to travel 1.5 hours to Lehigh!
I know there are many teams upset by the fact they will have to spend money for lodging, but think about the teams like 222, 1143 & 4285 from NEPA that have to pay for lodging at every competition we go to.
MAR is good in that we get to play more for the same price, but we don’t get to see the cost savings other teams in the district get to see.
good luck finding any room to put it
I like Lehigh, and I think it is pretty fair due to what Cliff stated. I think it will prove to be a great event.
Full disclosure: I never liked attending an event at Temple.
I just updated the standings for after BR alliance selections, let me know if you spot any errors.
Updated with elimination results, just waiting for award points and the DCA winner. Here are the teams who have clinched a spot at MAR CMP. The rankings aren’t official and will change slightly with award points, I haven’t looked at tiebreakers either.
1 341
2 2590
3 225
4 316
5 1676
6 11
7 3974
8 103
9 293
10 2729
11 56
12 3314
13 365
14 222
15 2607
16 303
17 1640
18 193
19 4575
20 816
21 272
22 2016
23 1218
24 1089
25 1403
26 486
27 2539
28 4285
29 75
30 25
31 869
32 714
33 1367
34 219
35 1228
36 1391
37 224
38 433
39 1881
40 1495
41 1143
42 1626
43 1370
44 4361
45 2559
46 1279
On the bubble (4 slots available):
3340 - 50 pts (@BR)
4342 - 48 pts
136 - 47 pts
3123 - 47 pts
357 - 47 pts
223 - 47 pts (@BR)
555 -42 pts (@BR)
4475 - 42 pts (@BR)
If the CA winner at BR is outside the top 50, there are only 3 slots available. Keep in mind that more than a few teams declined last year, so teams in the 51-60 range have a good shot to squeak in via declines.
Thanks Scott,
However, I know of 2 teams that have qualified that won’t be at the MAR Championship as they are attending a different regional on the same weekend.
I also looked at the floor plan for the MAR Championship that has a pit layout for 50 teams. So I would think any team 50 or better is in, at this point.
So that makes bubble teams 52+. The question remains how many declines there are of those that have already qualified. If I remember correctly, last year MAR needed to reach down to the 60th seed to get 50 teams. What it will be this year is anyone’s guess.
They’re from Australia… Good team though!