Annual team budget for MORT usually comes to 50-60K which gets spread out from our parent organization MOREA (Mt Olive Robotics Education Assoc.) Our area has wealthier students than most teams so we have kids pay for travel with our own funding offsetting much of the cost, especially for those who have problems with affordability. There is a 40 dollar charge for a team uniform only in freshman year as the uniform is for all years. T-shirts are sold sometimes and then used later on to offset travel costs.
As everyone has stated it depends on your ambitions. Personally I'd rather do 2 regionals as a rookie and not really worry about the Championship.
Definitely contact
341, they are in your area.
During your rookie year make sure you raise around XK (I'd say around 8K) extra while raising for the current season and reserve it for the next season. This will REALLY help your program because each year you'll be one step ahead.
PM for more area teams to turn to for help.