[Ben Martin]

The biggest pain (at least for us) is finding the space. If it's too far away (in a different building), moving your stuff around all the time can be a pain. High ceilings are a must for many games.

If you want to keep the one-time costs around $2k-$3k, you can make driver's stations and sidewalls out of wood.

At least for MAR, there is new carpet every competition. They save one set for off-seasons, then throw away or give away the rest. If you ask the event managers, sometimes they will give away the carpet at the end of the competition if you have a way to transport it.

If the 'powers that be' wonder why you need to have a static field sitting there all year, you can put temporary tables on it and use it as assembly or programming space (since you always want to be driving on FRC carpet anyway). More space = more students are able to get involved in the fabrication and assembly process.