There are flaws comparing FIRST to professional athletics:
- We are not professional roboticists. To get a true comparison, you should be comparing FRC to high school sports teams.
- Our continued presence in our sport does not depend on our performance nearly as much as it does in professional (or even HS) sports. When's the last time you heard of someone cut from the robotics team, other than for disruptive behavior?
- Even if the comparison was valid, most sports leagues do have some leveling mechanisms:
- -- Salary caps
- -- The worst team gets the first draft pick
- -- Scheduling
- -- In European soccer, promotion/regulation.
Are 1114 and 217 FRC's equivalent of the "$@#$@#$@#$@# Yankees?" Maybe. But eventually every dynasty falls. It's a special tribute to FRC teams and their leadership when the dynasty can last so long.
Instead of criticizing or whining about the best-of-the-best teams - and I'm not saying anyone has done that in this thread - learn from them. One thing I have noticed about every team that is successful in FRC, no matter how you define that, is that they are willing to share their success and mentor. They want other teams to be just as successful as they are.