Florida, New Mexico Square Off to Host X Prize Cup.

Florida, New Mexico Square Off to Host X Prize Cup.,

It's not yet on the XPrize.org website, but space.com already reported it:
http://www.space.com/news/xprize_cup_040122.html

Should Florida or New Mexico win ?, what's your opinion ?

Personally, I don't know a lot of both (good and bad sides).. so I'm intrested to hear what others know.

personally i'd like to see florida win, but that's just because i wouldn't have to go as far to visit the first one, unless by some chance i'm going to college on the west coast at the time, a very very unlikely thing. florida definitely has good facilities, climate, and experience, but it's likely that new mexico is fine in those aspects too since it made it to one of the top two. anyways, regardless of where it is i'll be going to the first one so i suppose it really doesn't matter all that much.

New Mexico actually seems more appropriate to me. The west better captures the spirit of exploration. But for success, I think Florida is a better choice. I think it would be much easier to attract people to a destination that they are familiar with (and many people are familiar with Florida as a vacation destination). Also I think it is likely that only one or two members of any given household will be interested in the X-cup. Those people will have a better time convincing their family to take the trip if they can bribe them with a stay at the beach or Disney or any of the many tourist places in Florida.

I personally believe that New Mexico is a great tourist destination, but I don't think is can compete with Florida in the minds of most people.

More specifically, if the X-cup were in Florida, I would have a chance of going because my wife loves the beach and the sun. If it's in New Mexico, I won't have much of a chance.

Does anyone know when the decision will be made between the two locations?

a) don't make 3 posts in a row, you can edit your first

b) not sure but it will be at least a couple weeks, probably a month or more, and they might even wait till a scaled flight for enhanced publicity after they've decided. i suppose if one of the others starts testing more then they might do it for one of their flights, but i doubt it.

Apparently the winner will be selected in March:

A Dec 28 Florida Today article stated:
"Once the prize is won, the foundation plans to hold a public exhibition in 2005, followed in 2006 by the first annual X Prize Cup, a kind of space race. The Florida Space Authority is competing to bring the X Prize Cup to the state.
Diamandis said the foundation hopes to select the host for the X Prize Cup in March."

(I wonder what the "exhibition" is...)

hmm... hadn't seen that, thanks for giving us a definite time to expect it. an exhibition sounds interesting, whatever it is. i'll make a guess and say i think it'll be a time for several of the teams to display their vehicles, and maybe for one of them to do a flight for people going there to watch.