Because it’s fun to have direct interaction with a team with whom you’re competing. It’s fun to have long-standing relationships with those teams as well; if we randomly select groups every year those will constantly shift.
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, and neither of my “fun” reasons are terribly significant. I do wonder about the size of the groups; you’re probably always going to end up with teams in your group at the same regional. So you could still be competing with teams that have already qualified, and now the competition is on two levels – within the group, and for the blue banner at that event. Have you thought about those kind of interactions?
Remember, I said “…I’m not sure I like…” I’m putting an emphasis on uncertainty, and I’m interested in the idea.
I went to a meeting at our regional this year about Districts, hat tip to the visitors from MAR who also attended and gave some personal insight.
The National Capital Area is currently looking at the district model but we were told it would be 2015 at the earliest. For reference this district could absorb 3 Regional Events (DC/Chesapeake/Virginia).
Given the proximity between MAR and the parts of the possible National Capital Area the idea of playing across district lines surfaces again.
At that meeting coaches were very divided on their initial perceptions of going to the district model so it may be an interesting ride.
It appears New England will be going district/“conference” next year. California, Minnesota, the National Capital regional (Maryland, DC, Virginia), Canada/Ontario, and some combinations of Midwest states (Illinois + Indiana + Ohio? + Wisconsin?) may switch the year after that. Representatives from Minnesota and the National Capital region have attended MAR events over the past two years, to get a feel for events and what teams think of them.
We need a lot more teams before it can work down here. Florida needs over 150, Georgia would need over 100, South Carolina would need over 80 and Alabama would need over 70 and even then Alabama might have to be split up into 2 different regions.
The topic of districts in the National Capital Region sure seems to be a lot more complex than I imagined. At the Virginia Regional, there was a lot of animosity from groups of people who liked keeping the format unchanged in Virginia. There are solid reasons for this: 5 of the 6 teams who qualified for Championships out of the Virginia Regional only attended the Virginia Regional. VirginiaFIRST and the Virginia Regional are the second oldest 501c3 and event pair, only behind the FIRST in Michigan and Great Lakes Regional, which is now the Michigan State Championship. Still, it is important to note that some teams in Virginia, including <1000 level teams, do not think they can sustain having to pay double to get into CMP. 422 has provided financial assistance to teams in our area just to get them a bus to St. Louis.
However, my issue with maintaining the status quo in our region is that by not acting as soon as possible to make this change to the competition structure in the area, we are actively hampering the progress of the program. In Virginia this year, teams only played 8 qualification matches. If you didn’t make eliminations and were a veteran team, you essentially forked out $625/match, which is something people at the Virginia meeting seemed to be apprehensive to accept as something bad.
At the Washington, DC Regional, which is common ground for teams all over Virginia, Maryland, and the district, there was near-unanimous approval at the meeting, citing the low costs, equal or fewer days out of school/work, and in general, a remarkable return on investment. Why that message did not come across well to some Virginia teams remains a disappointing mystery to me. There is money for teams in the states and district if they just go look for it.
Back on the topic at hand
If the National Capital Region is to switch over to districts by the 2015 season (which I still expect), there will be an interesting situation where pretty much the entirety of the northeast will be in the district system. They could theoretically all play under the same point system but have some restrictions (the limit on how you can submit for DCA, and you can only attend your local championship), but the whole area could serve as a test-bed for inter-district play.
I don’t see how you think 150 teams is a magic number. Michigan started around 120 teams, MAR started at around 100, and I think NEFIRST will start at around 160.
The district system is a totally scalable model. If Hawaii wanted to move all of its 3 dozen or so teams over to a district model, it’s fine. It works better when you “combine” regionals like Philly and NJ into MAR, DC, Chesapeake, and VA into the NCR, and Florida could fold in Orlando and South Florida into its own district system, play with 72-80 teams, and it would still work. Michigan’s first year of districts also had nearly the same team density as Florida does right now.
I used the same team per square mile that FiM and MAR used which came to 150 for Florida. Florida right now has 76 teams spread out over pretty much the entire state with a lot of bald spots within the state. Once those areas get populated, the district model will most likely be applicable.
The land area of Michigan is 56,803 sq miles according to the state Government. The 96,716 area includes Lake Michigan, and there are very few teams based there…
132>76. How is that so hard to understand? More teams is needed to have more events in more areas. Right now you’d have like 3 in Orlando, 2 in Tampa, and like 3 in the Miami area. That’s not how you want the districts spread out over the state.
I would agree, right now there just isn’t enough team density in the major areas and they are too spread out to have 4 district events.
On the other hand I would like to see Florida move towards district sooner rather than later. Here are my thoughts on the system and its future: Nothing on Purpose: FIRST District System
I like your thoughts, just wanted to point out a couple of things. NE doesn’t want to have 2 simultaneous championships, they just want 2 fields at the championship, to accomodate 80-100 teams. Also, teams in Michigan don’t qualify just based on the championship, points earned during district events count for 40% and points earned during the championship count for 60% in determining who qualifies for Worlds.
How about if FIRST implements districts similar to the current regional system: Any team can sign up for any district, even ones outside their local area. However, if a team qualifies to advance in any district, they must go to that district’s regional. Regionals are set up as a second level in between districts and Championships.
I have a theory about why the receptions at DC and VA meetings went very differently. In the proposed NCA there is the potential for some teams to have the same travel issues that the Upper Peninsula teams of FiM have.
Looking at the teams that registered this year for the events and assuming they had a mentor at the meetings there is a significant disparity in the number of teams that will be within say 100 miles of two or more proposed district events. For those teams I can see travel being a significant issue as they are generally located at one end of the proposed district border and it is possible that a non district event would be closer than any “non home” district would be.
As more teams in specific areas move to a District model, we find ourselves (and other non-district teams) stuck with less choices for attending regionals across the globe.
Quite honestly, that sucks for the rest of us.
If at some point, we can only compete in Hawaii, then its time for another program.
Hawaii will never move to a district model because the cost is horrendous and a logistical nightmare between islands.
With the expansion of more teams west of Hawaii emerging, it’ll be interesting to see how the Pan Pacific plays in all of this.
But wouldn’t the NE champs have to be separate because for teams to play on both fields they would have to change their wpa key for each field. (I could be wrong since I’m a mechanical guy and don’t know much about networking)
In response to Joe:
Yes, buts that also because you have probably more than half of the FiM teams within a few hours travel distance of those events; which allows for multiple of those events at the same time. You could no do that in Florida. Take Central Florida teams for example, if you dont have a Central Florida regional atleast once a week, its almost a travel regional to anywhere else in the state; unless you just want to have the same teams competing against each other every single week. From Brevard County to Jacksonville or Miami is 2-4 hours one way. That would mean getting hotels for a North Florida District or a South Florida District. When the areas between the Georgia border and Orlando are filled in along with Miami to Orlando, then you can gain those easily attendable district events. Looking towards a Florida District system, I think there would have to be events in: Orlando, Tampa, Melbourne, Daytona, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Miami, Boca Raton, Pensacola. That would see pretty evenly distributed and all near areas that would get the most team growth.
I’m putting an emphasis on uncertainty, and I’m interested in the idea.
