Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
So, what you're saying is that some regionals are too big to fail?
It's not "not living up to the satisfaction" it's "Not affordable". Huge distinction. One implies an arbitrary judgement, the other is a simple mathematical fact.
Not saying that LVR should end. Merely stating that pouring money into a project that shows no signs of becoming self sustaining is bad for building a sustainable business.*
* yes, FIRST needs to be a business. If Money Out > Money In we're all going to be in trouble soon.
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Too big to fail implies that this single regional would have a direct, immeadiate negative impact on FRC. If the LV RPC can close the gap in sponsorship dollars over the next two years and keep filling slots like it has been, it's no more or less viable than any other regional. I believe LVR seats above the average regional size, and on top of that the event likely counts for more "non-KOP" registrations (not rookie/1st event) than KOP registrations, which financially makes it more viable for HQ since they pocket all of that juicy registration coin. While I personally don't have the books for LVR in front of me, I gather that the event does or at least easily attain a favorable financial standing as a regional event.
It seems the real crux is keeping teams in the program. On one hand, if you can't keep teams sustainable outside of a precious few, maybe you need to look at a different strategy. On the other hand, we talk a lot about how difficult it is to bring back a team from a school that wasn't ready for an FRC team. Is LVR really at a point where you would rather have an exponentially more negative impact of removing an entire regional and its operations than try to make it work?