Might as well start talking about this…
562 teams have registered as of 1:18
BAE is filled to initial capacity.
Michigan filters teams through the wait list, but FIRST lists Traverse and Ann Arbor as at initial capacity.
Fewer open slots are available at Championship because of the blossoming number of Regionals and they are going pretty quickly too.
It looks like the lowest-numbered 2011 rookie team is 3450. As of 1:35pm, the highest team number registered is 3466.
SBPLI reached initial capacity @ 4:10pm
Half the teams registered today did it within the first half hour. After the initial rush gave us 500 teams in the first hour it tapered off to a steady slope of adding roughly 50 teams/hour.
Our team is signing up another team next Wed. not sure where they will place # wise but every year I always find it interesting were the numbers are at.
FIM (First in Michigan) is running our registration a bit differently. While teams are signed up, they are ALL going on the waitlist. FIM is going through and assigning each team’s district based on their “closest” one. So if you picked your closest regional, it’s very very likely you will get it.
This is a cost savings measure to make sure that teams that are traveling do not lock out a local team from their local competition. It’s a smart move too in this economy and I was happy to hear they were doing it this way.
I don’t have all the exact details of how it’s working, but the idea that all the closest teams get to go to their closest district is important for teams that do Traverse City and the West Michigan events.
Let me be one of the first to say that I love the stats that Mark publishes. It’s like listening to a baseball game and the announcer has all the figures and tosses out the little nuggets.
I liked last years “trivia” that came out like the number of continuous regionals that teams attended. Maybe we’ll hear what rookie teams are traveling the farthest :rolleyes:
Thanks Mark!
I’ll try to keep up the chatter, but I’m making a mid-Atlantic tour of the Regional venues this weekend (I’ll be driving past and waving-7 venues in 7 hours), so I’ll be offline most of the time.
As for rookie travel, right now Mexico has 4 rookie teams, so they probably have the furthest to travel. Other countries might have farther to go, but they have no rookies yet.
After the first day of registration our most popular new Regional is Smoky Mountain trailed closely by Alamo. Way back in the field is Lake Superior-not as popular a destination as the veteran double-header in Minneapolis.
Hard to tell much about the double Regional sites (Dallas, Toronto, Seattle, Minneapolis).
Minneapolis is way ahead, but I imagine Seattle is right up there. It’s just that the Seattle numbers aren’t made public. Toronto trails the pack as half of Canadian teams registered State-side first- there were only 12 loyalists so far.
830 teams showing as registered is about 2% fewer than last season at this time.
From the @FRCTeams Twitter feed
This morning we have 822 teams registered which exceeds the 2003 season Stack Attack which had 787 teams
I’m not surprised by this at all. Many of the Minnesota teams are much closer to the metro than to Duluth and many of the teams further out where the teams that took a bit longer to register last year. I would expect the Lake Superior event to fill rather slowly until second event registration rolls around.
REX 1727 has regestered for the DC regional. There are 22 teams registered with a maximum of 49 teams. It’s filling up fast. ^^
Can’t wait to be back in season again- been too long since Championship.
I’m loving reading the numbers so far. 
The count is now ahead of the 2004 numbers (927) too, and getting close to the 2005 teams (988).
Today’s registration is slightly ahead of this same period last year, and can reasonably be expected to begin to pull away.
In addition to BAE & SBPLI (as well as a couple of Districts), three other Regionals are nearing initial capacity: Boilermaker (3 places left), Boston (4 slots remain), and Midwest (5 openings).
It doesn’t look like there will be any Championship openings by the time the rest of the teams become eligible on October 28.
Broke 1,000 teams at noon today. Only 3 hours ahead of last year.
Still room most places, nobody else has quite filled yet.
Pittsburgh(1), and Silicon Valley(4) are also close now.
P.S.
Around 2:00pm Pittsburgh became the third Regional to reach waitlist status.
The most eager rookies, those registering as soon as possible, come from California (14).
Mexico (5) has the most (only) non-US rookies so far.
8 countries are represented so far: US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Great Britain, Chile, Australia
I guess that’s one positive about being knocked out in the semis last year :o
I thought normally there were enough of those to go around. Probably like last year, 50+ slots will free open as other teams drop their spots.
Each year there are fewer and fewer Championship open registration slots, because FRC gains more and more Regional events that need additional reserved qualifying spots.
Not to mention the double events, although I imagine the new double-events held in the same facility could easily become single events again if they don’t get the expected signups.
Last year had 175 openings, this year 149.
Expect it to decrease steadily over the coming years…
Registration is unusually slow this year.
At this point growth is 2% (for 2011) vs 11%(for 2010)
This point being: 10:30am, 5th day of registration, 1047 teams.
In both cases Michigan and Washington state were hidden, so that shouldn’t be affecting the comparison of results much.
People just may not be in a rush to register.
P.S.
Added a graph to illustrate what’s worrisome about the flat growth rate. Prior years growth was much more distinct as you can see. Also, last year itself had one of the lowest growth rates in the past 20 years, so it makes the contrast even more stark.
Hey Mark can you find out the ratio of veteran teams to young/rookie teams per regional?
I have that info. as of yesterday.
At this point for most Regional’s it’s zero.
6.6% of the registered teams are rookies (69 of them).
The leaders are:
9 @ San Diego (vs. 23 vets)
5 @ Oklahoma (vs. 41 vets)
3 @
Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Long Island, Palmetto, Silicon Valley, Boston, North Carolina.
2 @
Midwest, Connecticut, Buckeye, Dallas
1 @
BAE, Alamo, Florida, WPI, Kansas City, Wisconsin, NYC, Arizona, Boilermaker, Bayou, Los Angeles, DC, Oregon, 10K Lakes, Utah
0 @ 20 other Regionals
Historically, do rookies tend to register later than veterans, or is the current dearth of rookies a new phenomenon?
The majority of rookies usually register later than the veterans.
By now probably more than 60% of the teams have registered (including an estimate of the hidden Michigan/Washington teams), but probably only 40% of the rookies we’ll end up with have signed up.
We’re pretty much right where we were last season at this time. A tiny bit ahead.
Last year 6.5% of the registered teams were rookies by the fifth day of registration.
there are 50 more Israeli teams that haven’t registered yet
