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Hello Teams,
As of September 10th, all Wisconsin contracts for the FY25 FRC Season have been finalized and FIRST HQ will be adding our events to their website this week.
FIRST Wisconsin explored more than ten venues across the state for a third regional event, engaging in productive conversations in Green Bay, Appleton, Madison, Southeastern Wisconsin, and Northwestern Wisconsin.
For those venues that were unable to accommodate us for the upcoming season, responses generally fell into these categories:
Venue availability didn’t align with our event dates.
Limited space for the field, pits, and auxiliary rooms for judges, volunteers, and other needs. Some layouts required splitting the pits, which didn’t suit our needs.
Some venues indicated they were not interested in hosting the event this year.
Seating capacity was insufficient for the 42 teams attending.
FY25 FIRST Regional Events in Wisconsin
Week 4 Seven Rivers Regional | Week 5 Phantom Lakes Regional | Week 6 Wisconsin Regional |
March 19th – 22nd Wednesday – Saturday La Crosse Center La Crosse, WI Standard Schedule 48 Teams (team capacity) | March 27th – 29th Thursday – Saturday Mukwonago High School Mukwonago, WI 42 Teams (team capacity) | April 3rd – 6th Thursday – Sunday WI State Fair Grounds West Allis, WI Standard Schedule 48 Teams (team capacity) |
Q&A
Why isn’t the third Regional in Green Bay?
Venues were explored throughout the area, including in Appleton and Lakeshore. There was no availability of suitable venues within our six-week competition season.
Why are the events back-to-back?
Events are scheduled when venues are available, and these are the dates available this year.
Why is the Wisconsin Regional at a new venue?
Bringing the Wisconsin Regional to the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds was largely in response to trends in team survey feedback about parking, load-in, and food service challenges at Panther Arena.
FIRST Wisconsin considers this a pilot to see if this venue is more favorable to teams and attendees.
What is the difference in the 2.5-day regional event schedule compared to the standard schedule?
Collin Fultz, Senior Director of FIRST Robotics Competition, wrote the following FIRST Community Blog Post, which shares more information about Piloting Regional Event Changes in 2025.
Teams that choose to attend an event with this format will experience the same or similar number of practice/qualification matches, and the same number of advancement opportunities, as they would at a traditional regional event.
Teams may also benefit from one fewer night of hotel expenses
FIRST Wisconsin is maintaining a comprehensive list of potential facilities and contacts for future events. We are also considering implementing a cross-program bid process to evaluate venue availability and gauge community interest in hosting either FIRST Robotics Competition or FIRST Tech Challenge events. Watch for updates between December and January as our FTC Qualifying Tournaments take place and the FRC Season Starts.
As a reminder, First Event Registration - Round 1 Preference opens on Thursday Sep. 26 at Noon ET and closes on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024 at Noon ET.
All teams are able to select events to preference for their 1st Regional Event for the 2025 FIRST® Robotics Competition Season. Learn more about the process on the FIRST website under Event Preference System in the Resource Library.
Thank you,
FIRST Wisconsin FRC PDP Team
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Mukwonago HS will be on their Spring Break during the time of that event so there will not be any normal school activities or other students there during our FRC Competition.
For the Phantom Lakes Regional, I am unfamiliar with how FRC events work at schools. Is Mukwonago High School planned to have normal classes during the event? If there is a normal school day occurring the event is there going to be an overlapping of hallway traffic? I have small concerns in regards to safety of the non-FRC students.