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Originally Posted by AJunx
FIRST already has restrictions on how teams can spend their money. The reason for these restrictions, in my opinion, is twofold. The first is obviously to keep the playing field reasonably level. No one wants there to be teams that win simply by outspending other teams (this isn’t Major League Baseball  )
The second reason is that FIRST doesn’t want teams spending every penny they have solely on the robotics competition.
If FIRST did want teams to spend all of their funding on the robotics competition, then why is there a 120-pound weight limit for robots? Why is the build season only 6 weeks long? Why can’t teams build $15,000 robots to compete? (note, a $15,000 robot could be pretty darn inspiring)
The general consensus seems to be that teams have a “right” to spend their money however they want. If this were truly the case, why isn’t everyone denouncing rules like the $3500 limit?
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Uunnnhhh, perhaps there is a different reason. Yes, the $3500 limit was initiated to help level the playing field at a reasonable level (i.e. ensure that well-backed teams could not buy an unlimited amount of machining and out-sourced services while other teams struggled to purchase minimal supplies). But it was also done as a specific part of the design challenge. Installing a price cap mimicks real life (virtually every engineering project has a budget cap and spending limitations) and encourages innovation (if you can't just buy a solution to a certain problem, then you have to find a way to create it). Just like the weight, volume, power, and schedule limitations, it was done to constrain the problem to a manageable level. This is done to ensure that the robots can be completed, competed, and then put aside so we can can actually have a life outside of FIRST (yes, I know, this may seem like heresy to some, but it is true!). Attempting to define the spending habits beyond the cost of the robot was never a factor in FIRST's determination of the robot cost limits.
FIRST recognizes that a very high percentage of the teams in the program spend their entire budget just paying for the registration fees, travel costs to attend the events, and purchasing supplies to construct the robot. For most teams, there is NO money left over to fund elaborate outreach activities. The situation alredy exists where teams spend their entire budgets building the robots and competing. And contrary to the previous statements, FIRST is just fine with that. They have not made any attempt to tel lthe teams, explicitly or implictly, how to spend any excess funds they may have (and I would not want them to).
-dave