[Mary]

My team old team had to fold due to the cost a few years ago, but I\'ve been looking to start a new FTC or FRC team again. Reading various threads the past couple weeks, I\'ve seen ideas to increase team fees to pay for ref training, I\'ve seen that FIRST is charging $45 per person to attend the championship party and the FRC reg fee is still $6,000 per team while FLL and FTC teams have to pay $1,000 - all seem really high, but it\'s a non profit so I never really questioned it.
Then I saw a thread where people said FIRST has over $8 million cash in the bank now. How can this be true? If they have $8 Million in cash, why was the fee increased on our team a few years ago? If they have $8 million, why do people have to pay extra beyond their Championship reg fee to go to the team party and why can\'t first pay for things like ref trianing? I know I haven\'t been involved the last couple years, but I was shocked to see that FIRST has accumulated $8 million dollars. If so, why haven\'t they lowered the cost of the fees for teams.

It doesn\'t make sense for a non profit to be making millions by charging schools such high fees. I\'m sure this would bother others, so I\'m not sure what I\'m missing or not realizing is a logical explanation. Anyone know?