Thread: FIRST Robotics as a sport
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Unread 18-05-2009, 20:21
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Re: FIRST Robotics as a sport
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber View Post
... let us say that team 9991 starts one year at school A. They get a couple good sponsors from the area. Now team 9992 wants to start at school B the next year, sponsors from team 9991 cant support two teams. 9992 struggles to survive and fails the next year. Meanwhile 9991 is still running strong. School A and School B are less than 10 miles apart yet because Team 9991 is considered a school activity (or sport if you wish) students from School B cannot join because they don't go to that school. ... 300 teams in <500 square miles. It is highly unlikely that the funding, material, and mentor support is available in that high density. NYC would be better served by having several large "super teams" such that the costs of the team could be better spread out.* These teams cannot belong to schools, they must belong to school districts or non profit organizations...
I agree 99% with your important point about FIRST teams existing (1st pet peeve) and thriving outside of associations with single schools; but I have a "quibble" (2nd pet peeve).

I think you are limiting your thinking to just FRC teams. FIRST and other programs have some successful, inexpensive (roughly 1/10th to 1/5th the expenses) alternatives to FRC. Using those programs you could have up to 10 teams for the price of your team 9991.

Blake
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