[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by EricH

FarmerJohn, back up your posts with evidence.

You've already found ONE of the many expenses FIRST has. Just one.

Overhead: Gotta pay the utility and facility maintenance bills at HQ.
Field Maintenance, Storage, and Transport (for HQ-owned fields, of which there are at LEAST a dozen): Per field, you need: a full set of field elements+spares, each and every year; any modifications to the guardrails needed, each and every year; repair of damaged pieces; storage for each field; transport for each field (1x semi per field); insurance on each field and its associated electronics. Now multiply that by a minimum of 12 (I believe the actual number is closer to 17). Maybe a new field gets built.
Key Volunteer Travel: Many of the key volunteers, particularly the ones that get trained in Manchester, get at least some of their travel paid for.
Production: FIRST pays a production company, at least for regionals.
Kit of Parts: Guess what, not everything in the KOP is a donation. Some is a discount, some has to be purchased at market cost. AND everything's gotta be sent out to teams.
CMP Costs: Don't think it's cheap to rent a convention center/football stadium for a weekend. Just a thought.
Team Grants: That's right, FIRST does give some teams grants.
FIRST Place: Guess what, this isn't quite overhead... It's in the HQ building, and is used as essentially an inspiration zone, but it needs some staff and maintenance too.
FTC, FLL, FLLJr.: Don't forget that these programs need funding too, for fields, venues, and staff to support them. That being said, their cost is lower due to smaller venues and smaller fields, but still needs to be accounted for.

I'm sure there's some I'm missing...

IT, HR, PR, website services, video production, volunteer shirts/hats, showcase dinner, supplier summit, etc.