Cost of going to Championship
 

It is curious to see that of the 12 teams that were on Einstein last year, and could go to the World Championship for free, two are not going: 207 & 548. My guess is that it had to do with costs associated with travelling to St. Louis.

What additional costs/challenges are there to going to world's, other than the entry fee? Does anyone have any ballpark figures on how much travel and other expenses are for an average team (as if there were an average FIRST team:) )?

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

The registration for one event was free, and a bid was open for Championship (as though they had won). Championship itself wasn't paid for, technically.

The biggest expenses are then travel and hotels, neither of which is cheap for any team going to St. Louis but doubly so for 207 out of California. If you have a resource like a paid-for event, you may find more inspiration or bang for your buck in staying closer to home.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

I think it'll cost us around twenty grand.....

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

These teams were offered automatic spots for CMP not a free ticket. They were treated the same as HOF or Legacy Teams. They still had to pay their registration costs.

There is no free lunch... or free CMP...


We are a team that usually takes about 25 students to CMP. Our costs are in the neighborhood of $9000 for airfare,
$8000 for hotel $5000 for registration $2000 for shipping pit supplies/incidentals...so a total of approximately $25,000 to attend.
We are from Seattle so your airfare might vary... we get our airline tickets early...

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I think when we won the Regional Chairman's Award in 2010, the entry fee was waived.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

We have our initial registration/the cost of one regional waived. After that we were on our own.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

That would be news... we have won RCA three times and had to pay the registraion fee every time. I believe that this year NASA will pay the registration fee for Engineering Inspiration winners and last year they gave $3000 towards registration but no one that I know of gets out of paying the registration fee.

I do believe that some regionals may have separate awards that they give that might cover registration or part of it but those would be specific to regionals.

If anyone out there knows something that I don't please add to the conversation.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

So this is interesting news from one of the 2013 Einstein teams. I didn't know that.
It really amounts to the same thing. A waiver of the initial registration is the same $$$ as paying for CMP. I stand corrected.

I guess I missed that somewhere along the way. I never saw that announcement from FIRST.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

FIRST would not waive your entry fee, maybe a third party payed it for you.

As far as I know, waiving the Einstein team's entry fee was unprecedented.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

What happened on Einstein last year was unprecedented.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

Exactly. Future Einstein teams, don't expect free registration*.

*unless this is a new thing, that would be cool

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

I apologize, I did in fact mis-remember. I delved back through some old emails from that time, and yes, we did still have to pay that fee. I don't know where I remember it from, but I could swear that at some point, the championship fee was waived for the winner of some award or another. As others have said though, it could have been a third party of some sort.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

Teams on Einstein last year had their entry fee waived this year.

By waiving the 5k initial registration, FIRST basically gave any team that would have otherwise returned a free championship. (At least free registration)

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...einsteinreport

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

It would NOT be cool, because it would mean Einstein was sabotaged again.

The FIRST community is better than that.

Unless you mean Einstein-winning teams getting their registration paid.... They already get invited. I honestly don't think there's a reason to - as mentioned above me, the reason their registration is paid this year is because FIRST wasn't able to make it right any other way after-the-fact.

Knocking on wood, and crossing my fingers, and wishing, and believing that nothing like 2012 will ever happen again.

Re: Cost of going to Championship
 

MMSD (school district) paid it for us.