[Scott_4140]

Basically this comes down to planning. If you believe your team has a reasonable chance of qualifying for your Super-Regional, you should be fundraising for that throughout the season. The same thing applies for the World Championships.

There will be teams that are totally surprised that they qualify. Rookie teams don't know what level of competition to expect. They may end up in the winning alliance and earn a slot at their Super-Regional. They're probably not going to advance to the World Championships. I don't believe there will be very many teams that get surprised twice.

Transportation and lodging at the super regionals shouldn't be killers for teams. Most teams live within driving distance. The ones that are farther out will have the hardest time.

Work with your Affiliate Partners now to find ways to minimize this impact. Maybe help them recruit a new sponsor to help fund teams to the next level. Or focus on the hardship cases. Or set up a surcharge at your state level to help pay down some of these costs. Get involved. Don't wait for someone else to solve the problem.

For Champs, you may need to plan ahead and reserve rooms and flights early. Cancel if you don't make the cut. It's a much smaller hit than paying the last minute prices. None of these problems are insurmountable.

World Championships are not going to get much larger for FTC. They may never get larger. We absolutely don't want to get into the situation that FLL is in. Super-Regionals are the most practical solution they could come up with. Maybe as the program continues to grow, the number of Super-Regionals may increase. This would further reduce advancing teams costs as everything gets closer.

We're victims of our own success.