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Unread 10-04-2005, 12:53
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Re: Should teams be allowed to attend multiple regionals?

Here is my theory on the matter:
Teams that attend more than one Regional reduce the cost for all teams to attend Regionals. This promotes the growth of FIRST by increasing the number of teams and Regionals

I’ve never been part of a Regional planning committee so I don’t know the exact costs involved in hosting a Regional. However, I think it is safe to assume that:
1) Fixed costs (site rental, playing field, etc...) are high
2) Marginal costs to add one more team (power, spare parts, etc…) are less than the marginal revenue ($4000 fee) until the venue reaches maximum capacity.
(Sorry bout the economic jargon, but its nice to see my minor in Economics is coming in handy )

The optimal number of teams at a Regional is the maximum capacity, from a profit-maximizing standpoint (loss-minimizing in FIRST’s case). FIRST has 30 Regionals and let’s say about 900 teams because it’s a nice number. If teams were only allowed to attend one Regional, the average Regional would only have 30 teams. This is significantly less than the capacity of the smallest venue (41 at Philly) and less than half the capacity of some of the larger Regional. To make up for this loss in revenue, FIRST would have to raise the cost of the kit and registration for a Regional (currently $6000) and/or reduce the number of Regionals.

Keeping the cost of the kit and entry down is important since it is the minimum annual cost of fielding a FIRST team. If this cost increases, less potential new teams will be able to raise the money for the entry fee. Also, more existing teams would have financial difficulties and possibly go bankrupt (dropout of FIRST).

If teams could only attend one Regional, there would not be enough participants to support 30 Regionals. Some Regionals are more popular than others, so the less popular Regionals would be starved for competitors. This year, the Waterloo Regional had the bare minimum of 24 teams in attendance. I don’t think teams 40 and 68 would have traveled to this regional if it meant they would not be allowed to attend BAE and GLR as well.

Is it fair that some teams attend more Regionals than others? No, but FIRST isn’t fair and never will be. Some teams will always have advantages (money, experience, engineers, etc…) over other teams.

In FIRST, it doesn’t really matter if the competition is totally fair, as long as the competition is fun. The actual competition aspect of FIRST has always been a means to an end. The competitions are fun so teams keep coming back and more teams join. More Regionals are added, increasing FIRST’s exposure in that region. More teams join because they have a local Regional now. FIRST continues to grow. Along the way more and more students every year are learning that engineering is more than just difficult equations for geeks. Engineering can be a fun and rewarding experience that everyone can do if they try. The culture of young people around the world changes for the better simply because robotic competitions are fun.
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