[GeorgeTheEng]

Originally Posted by Nate Smith

This comes up just about every year, and while it's been said just about every year, I'll reiterate it again to save from having to search...

Very little of the registration cost actually goes to the costs of the actual regional event you are attending. The vast majority of it goes to things such as:

• Payroll @ FIRST HQ
• Travel Expenses for FIRST staff
• Kit of Parts items
• Facility costs(utilities, etc) for FIRST HQ
• etc, etc...

As others have alluded to here, essentially what FIRST does is guarantee that the various bills for the regional (venue, A/V, drayage, etc) get paid, but it is the responsibility of the regional committee to obtain funding to cover as much of this as possible. In the event that the committee comes up short, FIRST covers the difference.

In addition, if you look at FIRST's financials, the registration fees in total are far lower then the total operating expenses. It is more then likely that some major sponsors are feeling the economic hurt and have had to reduce thier generous donations this year.