Posted by Tom S…
Student on team #177, The Bobcats, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells & ONSI.
Posted on 7/11/99 10:55 AM MST
You guys think ESPN is going to wait til december again to cover the nationals? I sure hope they don’t cause I want to watch some more matches cause it was too hot to go out and watch em live 
-Tom
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 7/12/99 12:02 PM MST
In Reply to: ESPN coverage??? posted by Tom S. on 7/11/99 10:55 AM MST:
I do not remember seeing any ESPN people at Nationals.
This is not definite, but I’m fairly sure that they were not there.
There was at least one production company making a documentary-type
program of FIRST. They were profiling a few (7 or 8?) teams along with
getting mega footage from Nationals. They are in the editing stage now,
I believe. I have no idea when they will be done or by whom this
program will be shown on TV… or maybe they’ll make it a film, like
‘Hoop Dreams’.
Andy B.
Posted by Nate Smith. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #74, Holland FIRST Robotics, from Holland High School and Haworth, Inc…
Posted on 7/12/99 12:10 PM MST
In Reply to: No ESPN ??? posted by Andy Baker on 7/12/99 12:02 PM MST:
: I have no idea when they will be done or by whom this
: program will be shown on TV… or maybe they’ll make it a film, like
: ‘Hoop Dreams’.
: Andy B.
If my memory serves me correctly, they mentioned something at '98 Nationals about one of the judges making a film about FIRST…
Nate
Posted by Matt Brown.
Student on team #67, HOT, from Milford High School and GM Milford Prv Ground.
Posted on 7/13/99 12:21 PM MST
In Reply to: No ESPN ??? posted by Andy Baker on 7/12/99 12:02 PM MST:
: I do not remember seeing any ESPN people at Nationals.
: This is not definite, but I’m fairly sure that they were not there.
: There was at least one production company making a documentary-type
: program of FIRST. They were profiling a few (7 or 8?) teams along with
: getting mega footage from Nationals. They are in the editing stage now,
: I believe. I have no idea when they will be done or by whom this
: program will be shown on TV… or maybe they’ll make it a film, like
: ‘Hoop Dreams’.
: Andy B.
Hi everyone! 
Well you are exactly right. I’m on the HOT team and we were one of the
teams that were profiled. They are indeed doing a documentary.
I’m not sure when that will be out but I’ll talk to some of the people
who were involved and see what I can find out if you like. Our camera
man, Bruce, will most likely know a few things. If so just send me an
e-mail at [email protected].
Animation, HOTteam.org web master, Programmer,
Matt Brown
Posted by Kyle Huang.
Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Gunn High School and Sun Microsystems, Nasa/Ames and Xerox PARC.
Posted on 7/15/99 5:29 PM MST
In Reply to: No ESPN ??? posted by Andy Baker on 7/12/99 12:02 PM MST:
I don’t think it’s very likely that ESPN wouldn’t cover the FIRST nationals as long
as they are at Disney World. Remember, ESPN is owned by Disney, and all things
considered, Disney is one of the most massive companies in the world and it
probably doesn’t cost them that much to cover the three days of competition.
But who knows…
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 7/15/99 10:43 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: No ESPN ??? posted by Kyle Huang on 7/15/99 5:29 PM MST:
I was wondering this same thing about this time last year…
Remember the fiasco in 1998 that occurred when ESPN didn’t want to show any team’s corporate sponsors? They went 'round and 'round with FIRST after initially showing them a version of the 1998 competition that actually had all of the companies logos edited out (at least, that was the RUMOR).
FIRST finally won out and the TV show was aired without the editing.
With this in mind, I kept my eyes open this year to see if ESPN was filming any of the competition. Since we won in '98 (and they interviewed us a couple of times then), I thought that they would at least catch one of our matches in '99. BUT, I did not see, talk to, or hear of any ESPN crew in attendance.
The only crews I noticed were the corporate crews (GM had one, Delphi had one, etc.) and the independent crew who is making the documentary.
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing to think that FIRST --> Epcot --> Disney --> ESPN could work this out, but it looks like they didn’t.
This is all just my opinion from passive observation, though, and it may be WRONG. As my team knows… I can make a wrong decision once in a while.
Andy B.