[Deetman]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I'm all for more time on the field. Running a small team for 5 years, I understand the disparity in FIRST. I'm just concerned about the economic strain for any team that makes it out of the State competition. There is a huge difference in 2 and 3 paid events a year. The only way this makes sense is for those who qualify for states to go for free. FIRST wants to follow the state athletics model. That's what they do: competing in the State competition is free.

An understandable concern as FRC is not cheap by any means.

As Steven mentioned above, MAR has grants that every team is eligible to apply for and receive to help or completely cover District Championship and World Championship fees. I'm not sure what FiM does/has but I would imagine they have something similar. Where does this money come from? Those big fancy regional events cost somewhere in the ballpark of $200k (at least for the two Regional's encompassed now by MAR) which does not come from registration fees. Assuming these same donations continue, running all district events and the district championship costs significantly less (not sure of exact amount, assume <$100k). There is now extra money for operating expenses and grants for teams. As one of the MAR board of directors likes to put it at events, (paraphrasing) MAR doesn't want the reason you can't attend either the district championship or worlds to be money.

I don't know specifics for your region, but guessing from your location listed here you would be encompassed in a "Capital Region" district? If so, one of my mentors from when I went to high school is heavily involved with looking into the district model there. I ran into him and MAR Champs last year and one of our district events this year. If you send me a private message I'll dig up his contact information for you. Yes, FIRST really is a small world...