I was a scorekeeper at the Midwest Regional this weekend and had the chance to chat with some FIRST reps at the event. They were talking about FIRST moving its headquarters to Indianapolis. Lots of emails have been going around the organization talking about this. This discussion came from very reliable sources.
What do ya’ll think the chances of this actually being reality could be? 
Hrrm. Perhaps the game next year will be a race and the field will be asphalt. 
Anyway, while there’s nothing specifically wrong with the move, I think they should stay where they come from. Where DK and DEKA and the Segway and all that stuff originated. What’s in Indianapolis besides IRI and the Indy 500?
I would LOVE to see the FIRST headquarters move to Indy 
, but purely for selfish reasons. I want go get much more involved in volunteering directly with FIRST, and that move would certainly make it easier. However I must agree with sanddrag’s comments above. Tradition should count for something. 
I would be interested to know who was discussing this option, and what “power” they actually have to make it happen …
(shudders)
DK - April 1st isn’t until Thursday.
On a lark, let’s imagine that this is true. If FIRST were to move, Indy is not a bad place to be. The NCAA headquarters are here. The downtown athletic/convention facility is world class (NCAA final four is here about every 4 years, among other big events). Indianapolis claims to be the “amateur sports capital of the world”, since Indiana has such a high focus on high school and college sports. Indy is safe, centrally located, and has a cheap housing market. Travelling in and out of Indy is very easy.
But, why put it in Indy, where only up the road about 40 miles is a city that calls itself the “City of Firsts”? That is where FIRST should re-locate. It’s natural, the “City of Firsts”, home of FIRST. Imagine that! What is that city, you ask? Well, that would be Kokomo, Indiana.
Andy B.
I’m with Stu. FIRST would be cool to have in the hometown. I could actually go to the “garage sales” and get cheap FIRST stuff. Maybe Dean would move here too 
I’m not sure what benefits it would have for the FIRST community…centralized location? After all the midwest is the powerhouse of FIRST
Eric
Hmm. Now this is an interesting rumor!
Now for the pros and cons:
Pro:
-Travel: Logistically easier and cheaper for the country to travel there, since it is in a more central location than Manch-vegas will ever be. Also serves as a central location to send things from. (I’m assuming the Indy airport is larger than Manch’s, and thus has more flights and is more accessible. If this is not the case, let me know).
-Cheaper: Doing a quick Salary.com cost-of living calculation, persons working at FIRST in Indianapolis as opposed to persons working at FIRST in Manchester would see a raise of $2,773 in disposable income (assuming they make 50K a year…but the percent changes don’t change based on income). The cost of living in Indy is 8.3% lower than living in Manch, and the typical salary decrease from being in Indy as opposed to being in Manch would only be 2.4%. So, it works out better for the employees.
Con:
-Moving people: Yikes, this could get ugly. People like where they live, and moving them could be hard. And, if many people left FIRST because of the move, you’d have to find lots of people to replace them. And this is nothing against the midwesterners, but in any place where a major employee shift occurs can cause serious damage to the company. I’m not saying FIRST can’t handle it, its just…tough.
-Leaving Dean: In one of his many interviews, Dean decided on NH because “he read the license plate and thought ‘Live Free or Die’ appealed to him”. With DEKA, Segway, and Dean’s house all situated in the Manch-vegas area, it will be hard for him to stay in personal touch with the day-to-day operations of FIRST if its in a whole other region. This might have reprocussions we haven’t even thought of yet, or it could be that Dean feels that FIRST is in enough good hands that he can step back. Or it means Dean is moving to Indy with FIRST, and leaving DEKA and Segway behind…but I honestly don’t see that happening.
Plus, personally I’d be able to visit FIRST and Sigma Kappa National HQ all at once, thus it’s better for me! But that also means no more driving to Manch-vegas to do cool FIRST stuff…cause Indy is much further away 
not only would it be easier for teams to travel to the FIRST headquarters for kickoff meetins and other events
it would be easier for the FIRST people to BeBop around the nation during the regionals and championship - flying 1000 to 1400 miles in an afternoon isnt so bad, but them LA to NH flights are a killer.
here’s a thought…can they keep the headquarters where it is now and simply have another building in a seperate, 2nd location to operate out of (sort of like a regional branch)? Could there be any advantages/disadvantages to that?
How about this? If FIRST had their HQ at Indianapolis, they also could have The Championship Event at The RCA Dome and the Indiana Convention Center. They are linked just like Atlanta’s facilities are. FIRST has Atlanta booked for this year and two more years. That should give them plenty of time to move their offices to Indy and get ready for a “home-town” Championship Event. Having the Championship Event in the same city as their headquarters would reduce their cost of having the event, as all the FIRST HQ’ers would not have to travel.
If I remember correctly, Indianapolis is actually a shipping hub for FedEx, one of the few in the country. I know the National FedEx hub is in Tennesee(Although I don’t remember which city, I belive it is Memphis.) Since all the crates are shipped with FedEx, it’d be closer to headquarters. Although the crates, if I’m correct, are not shipped to FIRST headquarters. So I dunno, I was just expanding a bit.
I think it would be a really good idea becuase of how centralized the Midwest is. I know that for kickoff, it would most likely be easier for many team leaders to get to Indy rather than Manchester, and the weather may make things a bit easier for them. And as ebmonon36 said…heh, we’d get to easily attend the garage sales now, which would be awesome.
That may be a possibility, Mayor Bart Peterson seems alwyas happy to generate more travel within Indy. We have the Indy 500, the F-1 race, NCAA championship, BOA Grand Nationals, and several other things. It is good for the economy of the city, and as of late, there has been a lot of talk about a new stadium being built for the Colts, so more money coming in right now is always a plus.
“There’s more in Indiana than corn” :]
People have already basically listed the good and bad things of this potential move, so I won’t touch on that too much… If FIRST HQ did move to Indy, it would be a more central location for the country. There are so many sports venues in Indy it’s insane…
Also, it’d be so awesome for us Indiana teams
I see the benefits of having FIRST in a more central location (and closer to all the powerhouse teams in the midwest).
However,(maybe I’m being selfish) FIRST did start in NH, it makes sense to keep the HQ here. I like the idea of establishing another branch though that Stephen Kowski had.
Mr Kelly–
I’m really hoping that they don’t move. I live less than 20 minutes from the Manchester Headquarters and I think that it’s really cool that I’m part of a team that is in the state where FIRST was not only started, but also based. I don’t know exactly how FIRST thinks (does anyone?), but I really don’t think they’d move the Headquarters out of the state the organization was started in, do you?
–Jake
Pshhhh Manch-Vegas is where its at. There is no need to move the headquarters. Kick off you say is a problem? Hence regional kick-offs around the nation. Hard to get to if you actually need to be there? We have a large airport ladies and gentlemen, and if its not big enough for you there is this little place called Boston with an even bigger airport less than an hour away. But honestly the headquarters doesn’t need to be in a central location…teams do not need to come to Manchester like you used to for kick-off, and thats really the only reason you’d come to the headquarters. Keep it where it all started from. If needed a satellite location would be the 2nd best option.
MR Kelly … ??? :ahh:
WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU JAKE ???
David doesn’t deserve that type of respect …
This seems a little weird to me. FIRST has a lot of connections in Manchester, Deka of course and AutoDesk is down the street and local companies such as MMH Ventures and Batteries Plus have offered very nice deals. Plus FIRST spent a LOT of money on their Manchester building, IIRC Dean renovated it for them and they pay him a big mortgage. The advantage to moving would be easier travel and more media coverage, so if they were going to move it would make much more sense to put the headquarters in New York and the engineering department in Indiana, but that opens up a whole other can of worms. I don’t know if I buy this but FIRST has certainly done weirder things.
Didn’t you hear? After Atlanta, they aren’t having nationals anymore.
Hee. Yeah, and Im transferring to engineering school 
Yeah, and I’m JVN!
I remember Joe’s joke…oh it was classic! He scared a lot of people that morning
Andy, a week ago I would have supported you on this, but I jest read in the paper about another “first” in Kokomo. It’s that “hum” that is in town and causes headaches, arthritis and other terrible diseases in residents. Ir must be true, because it was in the paper and included pictures and a map and quotes from people and even was on two pages of the paper. The peper was even the Indianapolis Star, not the “National Enquirer”.
And so, the best option is indy, home to six FIRST teams, baseball, the Dome, the convention center, Children’s Museum, IMAX, the 500, the F1 and Brickyard, major corporations and lots of other great things.
Plus, home to the nations best mexican food (Acapulco Joes)* and the worlds best pizza (Bazbeaux)*.