http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/frc/Blog/frank-fridays-header.jpg
Today’s good question comes from Mike MacLean, a member of FRC Team 2122, Team Tators, from Boise, Idaho, USA
Question:
*Frank,
Any word on the recommendations put to upper management re: 2017 Championship venue assignments?*
Answer:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the question. The recommendation is currently being reviewed at the Board level. After the initial review, we received some follow-up questions, which we did our best to answer. Questions were not unexpected, as the proposal is very detailed and includes a great deal of data. I believe we will have resolution within two weeks or so. I apologize for the delay on this. We recognize this is an important issue for all of FIRST. We will announce results just as soon as we are able.
Frank
Frank Answers Fridays is an occasional blog feature where I’ll be answering ‘good questions’ from the FRC community. You can e-mail your questions to [email protected]. Please include your name, team number and where you’re from, which will be shared, if selected.
Looks like this recommendation is still awaiting FIRST Board of Director approval, two months later?
Bummer that we don’t have any more details on the CMP split, over one year after the original half-champs announcement. I won’t even know which teams to say goodbye to this week 
Hoping the FIRST BoD gets their act together.
-Mike
This seems like a weirdly detailed piece of planning for the Board to get involved in. Huh.
What would you do differently if you knew it was the last time you might see someone?
Is it possible to do that even if you might see them again (I would assume most positive responses = yes, most negative responses = no).
Hey Ike,
I’d take my kids by their pits to ask them questions about their build methods and show them “what if we tried this” or “see how they solved that problem”. Many of the top teams in FRC are roles models for me and my kids. I’d want to make the most of those opportunities before half champs.
I’d buy my friends/colleagues a “mentor soda” this week and wish them luck in the future.
So to answer your second question, I guess yes and no.
Probably not great reasons to most, but its valuable to me.
Still holding out hope for 2021.
-Mike
EDIT I’ll likely be doing lots of this in the coming days regardless. Just would be nice to focus some energies.
They probably wanted to wait and make the big announcement this weekend at the Championship.
Unlikely as any decision, imo, will prove unpopular. Better to let the last Championship celebration proceed without stirring the pot.
One more example of the difference in degree of difficulty between making a decision and implementing a decision…
It seems they are making up for making a quick and rash decision of splitting champs in the 1st place. At least they are semi keeping the population in the loop, granted it takes us asking questions to remind them about it…
I would be willing to bet that the split will be geographic–perhaps the Mississippi River will serve as the dividing line? How fitting that that decision is made in St. Louis…
I will take that bet. The concentration of teams in the NE, Midwest and Great Lakes regions is likely to dictate that even teams in Florida and Georgia will be heading to Houston to join their counterparts from WA, OR and CA.
After consulting for NGOs for years, I realize how different the FIRST board is in comparison to other NGOs of its size. This is, in comparison, an extremely engaged board. Many sponsor teams and give copious amounts of money to the program. I’m not surprised that they’re involved.
Michigan will go to Detroit. Everyone else will go to Houston.
Sounds accurate. Champs in Detroit is really just a Michigan District Championship replay. 
I was under the impression that the impetus for half champs came from the BoD itself, so I assumed they would also want to be involved or in the loop of team distribution.
I am making the assumption that the spilt will be regionally divided, so it looks like I will be seeing many teams up close for the last time. I imagine this will be my last time seeing teams like 118 and 148, possibly even California teams like 254 and 1678. Still don’t know how I feel about the split.
MSC in Cobo? :yikes: On a serious note, with 800 teams at 2 CMP events, Michigan might need to consider a bigger venue than the DeltaPlex for states.
#2states?
My biggest hope is that they don’t intend to do bleacher-style fields in Cobo Hall like they did when the Black Eyed Peas played at Championships. That was an utter failure. It was miserably uncomfortable, there was only about 1/3 the seating that was needed, the sound systems stunk, and the screens were hard to see.
Please let FIRST have learned from that experience.
Rereading this, I better understand the dilemma some areas face. Being near Detroit, I have a pretty good feeling what my FIRST and Championship experience will look like through 2020. Those on the coasts… its a toss up.
I too am holding out for 2021. I still think there is a real possibility to do an offsite Champion of Champions round and have it televised which IMO is the real next step to “Making it Loud”. Having helped with production of the MSC specials, I think FIRST could use this years program by Robozone as a template for their future production. IE, some background, some highlights from the two Championship events, and then the second half could be the two teams facing off.
The other format would be show the two FLL winners, then have FTC World Championship followed by FRC World Championship.
I plan to visit with a bunch of the Texas teams this year as much like the Michigan teams, we pretty well know where we will be in a couple years.
I need to finish my list of teams to see.
IKE
Is there a different way to have a field in a convention center? The grapevine says that’s where FRC will be through division elims, then move to Ford Field for Einstein.
And perhaps one closer to the geographic center of Michigan teams.