Quote:
Originally Posted by Petey
I believe that any team that qualifies by FIRST's criteria (regional champs, chairman's, and ROY) should not have to pay the $5k entrance fee. That's like a baseball team winning into the playoffs and then having to fork over money to make it to the World Series.
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The fans pay for the world series; unfortunately, FIRST isn't at the the same level yet. So, the teams have to pay.
FIRST simply can't afford to have over half of the teams not pay. If it were just rookie teams, there would probalby be no more than 70ish (rookie all star, and assuming each regional has one rookie winner), but more likely 45ish. That would be more feasible for FIRST to give a discount too; but I still doubt FIRST could simply waive the fee. I bet they would like to, but they can't.
Now, It'd be nice if FIRST pushed the idea of some of the big name sponsors providing funds for this. I know the Anenburg (is that right?) foundation paid the way for LA regional winners in '06. I don't know if FIRST is already promoting this or not, but it is the only realistic method of this happening at this time.
There will always be teams who can't afford travel; Veteran and rookie alike. It's just how the world is and we can't change that.
If my team lost Northrop Grumman as a sponsor next year and planned on just won regional, but ended up winning it and being unable to afford it, I would work my butt off to raise the money. If we couldn't raise the money I would naturally be upset, but that's just the way life is.