[waialua359]

Originally Posted by J93Wagner

I have heard multiple complaints in this thread alone that FRC has been costing the same and quality has been going down. On the surface this seems true. As far as I know, most teams have been paying $6000 per year in registration costs. And we also know that apparent quality has also been going down.

However, I'm not sure that teams have really been paying the same. The reason: inflation. That said, courtesy of Wolfram Alpha, in today's dollars, teams in 1995 would have paid $8702.72 in registration costs compared to the flatline $6000 today. Which is about a 30% decrease in real costs. And, well, you get what you pay for. Also, for anyone who was wondering, I input "$6000 (1995 dollars)" into Wolfram Alpha.

And to anyone who wants to put forth alternative ideas on this topic. Please tell me. I am interested in hearing them.

No offense, but I just went through two years of furloughs (coming in every single one of those days for robotics) and now our State mandated pay cuts, increased health care costs....i.e. our portion, and continued furloughs when our current governor did the George Bush "Read my Lips," No More Furloughs.
Our pay has NOT kept up with inflation.

Instead, the attitude is to do MORE with less to allow our students the same, if not more, opportunities with participation in FIRST.