For anyone who’s wondering exact locations, here are the sites for the District competitions that were given out at last week’s FIRST in Michigan Forums.
Week #1 (2/27 - 2/28): Grand Traverse District Event (Traverse City) @ Traverse City Central High School
Week #2: (3/6 - 3/7): Genesee District (Kettering) @ Kettering University
Week #3: (3/13 - 3/14): Detroit District #1 @ Cass Tech High School
Week #4: (3/20 - 3/21): Detroit District #2 @ Wayne State University AND Lansing District @ Lansing Convention Center
Week #5 (3/27 - 3/28): Oakland County District @ Troy Athens High School AND West Michigan District @ Grand Valley State
Week #6: (4/2 - 4/4): Michigan Championship @ EMU
Week #84/16 - 4/18): FIRST Championship in Atlanta
We have done the Auburn Hills to Yipsi commute for several years. Yipsi to Detroit shouldn’t be too bad. And Toledo is less than 1 hour from detroit, so I think the Far South East is covered well. Overall I would say that SE Mi and Mid Michigan are covered well. SW will have one relatively short event, but will have more of a drive for their second event.
UP will have the long drives. Traverse City is probably as close or closer than regionals that they would have attended, but it will be quite a hike for them to do a second event or state championship.
The distribution of events probably matches the team distribution well, but that does mean some remote teams will have a hike.
Its not good planning to put the two closest events to the U.P one week after another. This district event pilot program will for sure now cost more money, than the traditional regional, because we will not pull our high schoolers out of school 2 weeks in a row. Thus making us travel farther and spend more on travel.
I know you guys get the short end of the stick with this district thing (compared to say, a Detroit area team), but if the issue is not wanting to make the drive two weekends in a row (as opposed to not wanting to make the drive twice at all), then there’s really not much a difference (distance wise) between going to the Genesee District and going to the Oakland County or Lansing District. I have family in Calumet, so I’ve made the drive at least 100 times in my lifetime, and if you’re already making the 10-12 hour drive to get to Genesee, what’s another 45 minutes to get to Oakland or Lansing? At least then you wouldn’t have to make the trip two weeks in a row (which I’ve had to do for non-robotics related reasons and can agree it really drains you).
Sort of. If you are comparing to 1 regional then doing 1 district should be slightly less (traverse city is slightly further than WI and Minnesota events). $1,000 less registration fee would offset that. For 2 regionals, it would be close depending on team size. You will have $5K less in registration fees, but additional travel fees from the additional 120 miles x2 =240 miles. Either way you are looking at the same meals/ overnights.
If you do 1 district and then 1 out of state regional it should be slightly less than the 2 closest regionals from registration fees and about the same miles.
If you do 2 districts, State Championship, then yes that is more travel and cost than 2 regionals. Registration would be $1000 less, but the added travel will eat that up (1 380 mile plus 2 500+ mile events= about 1200 additional miles).
Your teams best alternative may be to do Traverse City then go to WI or Minn. TC is week 1 and MINN is end of the season. WI I think is week 4 or 5.
3 away events would be very strenuous on any team.
We already have many ideas in place. But i meant more expensive than going to 2 “regular” regionals than going to 2 district events.
I know you guys get the short end of the stick with this district thing (compared to say, a Detroit area team), but if the issue is not wanting to make the drive two weekends in a row (as opposed to not wanting to make the drive twice at all), then there’s really not much a difference (distance wise) between going to the Genesee District and going to the Oakland County or Lansing District. I have family in Calumet, so I’ve made the drive at least 100 times in my lifetime, and if you’re already making the 10-12 hour drive to get to Genesee, what’s another 45 minutes to get to Oakland or Lansing? At least then you wouldn’t have to make the trip two weeks in a row (which I’ve had to do for non-robotics related reasons and can agree it really drains you).
Its actually only about 7-8 hours to Traverse City from Houghton so it would be 2-4 more hours to Detroit, not 45 min. And is it the 2 trips, not the 2 trips back to back. 2 trips to the LP, is more expensive than paying for registration and travel to go to MN and WI regionals.
2 regular regionals would cost you $10,000 registration plus travel expenses. 2 district events const $5000 plus travel expenses. Are you saying that it would cost an additional $5000 on top of what you already pay to go to MN and WI to come to the LP for two events? Why should it cost that much more? I’m not trying to be argumentative, I’m just curious - wondering if there’s something I’m missing.
We rent charter buses and there is a flat fee for that then you pay per mile you drive. plus we have to ship our own robot which costs gas for another vehicle also we have to pay to store our robot some where. The cost of food while at a competition at MN or WI is cheaper because we usually go in on a big 3 or 4 team lunch which brings food prices WAY WAY down.
People look at the FIRST in Michigan thing and think SWEET 2 comps for the price of one. But what they don’t look at it is the logistics of going to competitions and that is where the money is not being saved. You spend $4,000-$6,000 for registration fees but then you pay that and then some on a bus, hotel, and food.
We also don’t charge our students to go to the competitions because of the area we live in most of them wouldn’t be able to attend.
The theory of FIRST in Michigan is a fantastic idea, but its spirit just doesn’t work for us in the western half of the UP.
Understood. Thanks for clearing this up. For the LP teams the travel actually goes down because the distances can typically be covered by a school bus. We were trying to see if we could do TC, but the 230 miles is prohibitive. Kudos to your team for keeping it going with the closest regional 300+ miles away.
Maybe it’s not feasible for you, but have you considered carpooling? We recruit mentors and parents (especially those with vans) and carpool to every competition. I would have to believe that paying milage for a handfull of vehicles would be cheaper than chartering a bus. Just a thought - maybe one you’ve already had, but…