Considering this thread, and the general lamenting of a potentially sharp reduction in regionals southern NY teams can attend, the thought came to me that a district might be possible in Southern NY (meaning Long Island, NYC, Westchester, Rockland, and maybe Orange & Putnam.
I count about 84 teams there, but there may be more.
Issues:
Is there a group of mentors interested in exploring this? It’s not a trivial commitment.
The LI Regional is a ‘special case’ I am told, but I don’t know the details. Is there something in there that might preclude a district model?
Is 2014 or 2015 too soon?
Is 84 teams enough? (MAR has 99)
Are there venues for 4 district events of 42 teams plus a District Championship of about 55 teams? (My understanding is that the LI venue cannot accommodate 55)
My reasons are entirely selfish, of course: Once there are enough districts, teams can start visiting other districts to earn points for their home district championship…
(Being on a team less than 5280 feet from the Rockland County border might have something to do with that)
IMO, whether or not 84 teams is enough all depends on what the growth is like for the area. I’d assume there’d be enough growth over the next year or two to hit a number similar to MAR.
And I agree. The closer different districts are too each other, the closer we get to ‘interleague’ play
I think that if the district model was to be adopted in southern NY, which I would love to see happen, the obvious place to house the championship is the Javit’s Center which already houses the NYC regional which has hosted north of 60 teams before. The venue is massive and could accommodate everything that goes with a southern NY championship.
I sent an email about a month ago to some people in NY FIRST about the possibility of this very thing happening. The issue they said existed was that there are not enough off-season events and big teams with the ability to host these events. I am personally trying to get our team to host an off-season event next year as well as trying to get in contact with other teams in our area to improve this.
NYC has so many teams that struggle from budgetary issues and can barely afford to just attend the NYC regional. So many teams would benefit from what the district model gives them and I really want it to happen. There are also the obvious selfish reasons of more matches for less money for 694.
Whatever needs to be done to bring the district model to the NYC area I am willing to explore. I hope other mentors will do the same, but I am on board.
I speculate that reasons for a dearth of off-season events include:
A wealth of near-by off season events in NJ and CT
A significant percentage of FRC teams that don’t really have the resources to take themselves to the next level by meeting much more often than they do, almost year-round
A relative lack of parent involvement, essential volunteers to run an event
Inner-city venues that don’t lend themselves to off-season events
Teams who don’t have the human resources to attend an off-season event (it’s not the money)
I base these speculations on my own biases from having lived here all my life, plus some observations on what happened when teams DID try to run events, which were very under-subscribed and ultimately canceled.
Asking a team (or group of teams) to run a District event with no experience in running an off-season is a recipe for disaster.
So my point is that an early step in the process would be to generate interest in a few off-season events in the area.
(On an unrelated topic: What are there no teams in Rockland County and only two in Westchester (Katonah and Yonkers)?)
