Quote:
Originally posted by Stu Bloom
If FIRST is not spending so much money on 23+ HUGE GLITZY regional competitions they could even subsidize the Divisional and National costs to ease the burden on teams that win their way there. What better way to increase the participation in FIRST?
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The problem with this type of system goes back to the common misconception that the 4K you pay as registration for a regional goes toward the expenses of that regional. In reality, only a very small portion of it does. In reality, the majority of the registration fees cover things such as:
-The salary of those who are employed by FIRST
-Travel costs of sending FIRST representation to the various events
-Some of the bills associated with their office
-Paying the drayage costs that FIRST covers for each team
-Paying the Meeting Co, etc. for handling the event logistics
-etc, etc...
The regional events are for the largest part funded by local sponsorship(those companies you see on the "200X FIRST _______ Regional Sponsors" banner.) As with any major corporation, these sponsors have a definite greater interest in funding _local_ events rather than an event held further away. So if a scaled down regional structure was used, it would not save FIRST any real money, but rather only cause the local committee for each regional to ask their sponsor(s) for a smaller check...