[gblake]

Originally Posted by mastachyra

Has there been any downsides to becoming an official sport? The sponsorships and funding have not changed? Are there more rules you need to follow? Is FIRST the only official robotics competition?

I have expressed myself more fully about this in other threads. Here I'll write these two summary thoughts:

1) Be careful what you wish for. Oh so many things, about the ways oh so many teams operate, will steadily become forbidden once government bureaucracies put their camels' noses into the FIRST tent.

2) FIRST FRC is not the definition of the term "robotics". If you are going to press for a state-sanctioned STEM robotics competition(s), do it graciously and professionally by educating your states about ALL the competitive, student-oriented, STEM robotics programs, and then using neutral selection criteria to encourage them to sanction the one(s) that give(s) the greatest benefits to the greatest number of students at a low cost to the students and taxpayers.

[SOAPBOX]A "state FRC championship", is one STEM-competition tournament, built on top of only one of four programs run by only one of *several* popular STEM non-profits. Common sense should tell us all that a state FRC tournament should not be called "*the* state robotics championship" for any state, nor should any other single program's tournament get that title. Our tax dollars are for educating students, not for promoting FIRST, or any other single program.

Put the students and communities first, not the program(s).[/SOAPBOX]

Blake