A very reliable team member mentioned a Kansas City regional next year, any other cities that are rumored/fact?
I am pretty sure about having one by 2006. 2005 is still kind of unsure. They are having a meeting in May about the regional and I’ll post anything I hear. We have the money I just don’t know if we are too late to have one next year. That was the impression I got from some of the team mentors who talked to the FIRST official in charge of regionals. But we will see. I know if it does happen it won’t be the first weekend because the Big 12 basketball tournament is in town. About where KC would have a regional, probably Hale Arena by Kemper Arena (where the American Royal is), Municipal Auditorium by Bartle Hall (big convention center), or my preferred place Overland Park Convention Center (but I don’t think they have the seating, they do have a lot of hotel and places to eat nearby though, and lots of space plus a cybercafe). All three would have a little more room than the St. Charles Family Center. So that is all I know for right now. I’ll try to post again after they have the meeting to see if anything new has come of it.
Finger Lakes Regional (Rochester, NY) - FACT
Other reliable rumors,
Las Vegas
Waterloo, ON
Purdue
Vegas would be ummm… interesting
Wasn’t someone saying something about a San Deigo Regional? Redhead Jokes maybe?
SD would be an awesome place for a regional.
Las Vegas would be sick. Definately enough hotels. It’s in the middle of nowhere, I’m sure we’ll have enough space to setup an Epcot like venue.
Sin city here we come 
I was under the impression that the SD regional was set in stone for next year. If so we’ll have overtaken every other state for # of regionals!
I havent heard Vegas before, and we all know Dean’s position on that, so it’ll be interesting to see if this is true.
Cory
I heard Vegas from a couple of people. Vegas is a big city just like any other, the casinos are just downtown, I’m sure there are some great places to have it away from there.
I also heard San Diego. I don’t think 2005. I think they are waiting for more teams in san diego and more teams in California in general. But yes there will be one in San Diego eventually you can count on that.
The West is showing it’s stuff, Adding Seattle, Colorado, Arizona and Sacramento since 2002 and now looking to add two more. In 2000 there was only one out here.
Is the South Florida Regional happening this year? I’ve been waiting for that one for a while now.
I would bet that any regional that isn’t in the planning stages (i.e. committee formed, etc) yet won’t be around for 2005. That was at least the impression that we were given last year in Rochester (we had planned on 2005, FIRST at first thought we were looking at 2004).
Matt
It’s not a rumor. The Waterloo regional will debut during the 2005 season.
Yeah Matt.
That is definitely the impression I am getting right now. Kansas City has the backing but we are just going to be getting into any planning stages in May. It could happen but there is still a lot of work to be done. We’ll see.
I don’t think I’ll have luck starting a team in Manhattan this year without a KC regional or NASA grant. Does anyone know of any good grant programs that would be applicable to starting a FIRST team? From where I am I’m looking at a 7-8 hour trip out-of-state to the nearest regional and I’ll be hard-pressed to convince a school or teacher to add a 10-20K program in the middle of State budget problems. Two hours on a yellow bus would be much more reasonable.
I’m not sure how close your are to Wichita but I’d suggest talking to Boeing. If you can find anyone that works there, they can suggest that your team get money from the Employee Community Fund (or at least that’s how it works in Southern California).
Matt
Probably not close enough. 2 and a half hours. I assuming that is for more local programs and I wouldn’t consider manhattan local. I’ve seen that many large corporations have funds not specified to only areas near them. I think microsoft and toyota are the two I remember off the top of my head. I should look for more. But what grants have other teams got that were not local money. My school’s team received a small grant from the foundation that is interested in funding the Kansas City regional and we live at least 45 minutes away. The farther distance away would be better.
A San Diego Regional would be awesome. I highly doubt that there would be a Vegas Regional. I also heard rumors of a Hawaii regional. That would be cool.
UNLV has a great campus! Air prices are dirt cheap. Lots of interesting things other than the Casinos to do. I like the idea of Vegas as long as it isn’t the same weekend as the Arizona Regional.
Not to mention that UNLV has a great sports areana!!!
He meant Manhattan, Kansas. It’s a bit farther away than NYC.
Matt
Yeah matt got here first. I do plan to stay involve with FIRST a least through my high school’s team but would like to expand a little more in the Great Plains. And BTW congrats on winning regional chairman’s this year. I’ve heard a lot about the great program you run there and it is definitely a model to other FIRST teams. Thanks for the help. I am just finishing a e-mail or letter (don’t know which one would get better response, I do know which one is cheaper) to send to local science and technology teachers to inform and see about any interest. If I get some interest I will probably start working with that teacher and trying to get things started to set-up including looking for funding and making contact with the university. By next year there will be 8 or 9 students who have been on FIRST teams and some have already express some interest if I could spark anything. So hopefully I find an interested teacher and then everything might work. Thanks again for your help and interest.
woops my bad. best of luck to you. let me know if i can help you out in anyway still. Thanx for the compliments
-wayne