Quote:
Originally Posted by Sperkowsky
Seriously. Then what are we paying for. The kop and first choice are half donated and the gdc can only have so many paid employees.
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There are a
lot of other expenses about running a regional that HQ takes care of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonA
Clearly, it does not cost $5000 for a kit of parts and one fractional slice of a competition. It costs way more than that, especially in more expensive markets. These fees go to support all aspects of supporting the teams and competitions. It costs $4000 to go to a second regional because a second regional is a luxury and it costs a lot to support the infrastructure of the FRC system so the $4000 (from those that can afford it) subsidies the cost of all competitions that you attend, kit of parts, and the entire infrastructure. True, the money does not go to the Regional Planning Committee to put on the events...but it does go to things like creating the field, supporting the field, transporting the field, paying the engineers and support staff at FIRST, sending that staff to run and support your regional, your local Senior Mentor, and other costs of running FRC. So, it confuses the trees for the forest when it comes to saying that the registration money doesn't go to the regional...in my opinion.
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Just think about the field, for example. There are 16 trucks, minimum (11 in the US, Canada, Australia, Hawaii, Israel, and at least one spare on standby). This doesn't even include the district fields (which aren't owned by FIRST, but that's another 10). Each field consists of ~20 road cases that have to get shipped (in a truck) to each event. Most of the US fields do 5 or 6 events, then go to St. Louis, and the others are crossing international boarders. Then the carpet has to be shipped separately to each events. Multiply that by the >60 regionals, and that adds up to a lot of money. Then add in the costs for all the field elements and game pieces - a portion of the field needs to get redone every year x20, parts go bad and need to be replaced (and some of the field hardware is not cheap), and game pieces (each event is budged 100 noodles this year, and each truck has at least a full extra set of totes. Then add in all the trophies, medals, banners, 100,000+ volunteer shirts, small mountain of gaff tape, and all the other disposables an event goes through.
These things add up - all that money is not sitting being used as a swimming pool somewhere in Manchester.