[EricH]

Seeing as this has turned into a discussion of spares, etc., I have a suggestion. This is merely a thought exercise; I highly doubt it will happen in practice.

Here is how distribution/spares could work. Every year, the new components for the year (if any) are sent out as soon as possible to fully-paid teams. Rookie teams, of course, get the full system.

Now, every year, there is a "window of opportunity" to get spares at a discount. Between two dates, teams can order extra cRIOs for less. The catch? Each team only gets x discounted cRIOs total. So once they reach that number, they can't get another at the lower cost, unless they can demonstrate that they no longer have one or more for some reason. (N.B. The trouble is figuring out a good way of enforcing the limit.)

Now, what about replacements? Provide proof that a cRIO broke and get a new one. Better yet, provide HOW it broke so that the NI engineers can further idiot-proof the system. (Intentional breaking does not count--full price.) Or, send the unit in for repair/replacement.

And, at any time, any FIRST team can get a new unit, but outside of a) the window and b) broken controllers, they must pay full price.