We're quickly nearing the time for the US Nationals event, only a few more months before the players combat and compete to lead the US team at Worlds. But where will it be?
2002: Orlando
2003: San Diego
2004: Kansas City
2005: Baltimore
2006: Atlanta
2007: Baltimore
2008: Chicago
2009: Kansas City
So where is 2010 going to be? Let's take a few semi-educated guesses.
1) Atlanta / Orlando - The Southeastern USA got completely passed over for US GPs this year. It seems most likely that this mean's we'll (I'm in Orlando) will play host to the Nationals. Orlando might have a slight advantage due to time since we were last here, but Atlanta is a more accessible location.
2) New York City - Always a popular destination, and they also were a GP location I predicted but that got passed over. New York, like Atlanta, is a big hub for air travel and though air fares are not the cheapest going into it, it is an easy destination to get to for a determined Magic player.
3) Denver - Another popular city, it has no home in the GPs circuit or PT circuit this year. It is centrally located making it among the most accessible locations to the majority of the country.
4) Baltimore - Proving to be quite a popular choice for the home of US Nationals in the past 8 years, it would seem that this needs to be on our list. The major dagger though is the existence of GP Washington DC which had originally been announced as GP Baltimore. So it seems unlikely that this will come out, but it cannot be overlooked.
View Possible 2010 US National Cities in a larger map
Why no west coast love? Well the left coast is already home to a PT and a GP, while the east coast is only home to one GP. As this relates to the Professional Tourney Organizers, it seems unlikely Wizards would load up the west coast with Nationals as well leaving other PTOs empty handed.
What do you all think, where will Nationals be held?