We've all been through it. You spend one hour extolling the virtues of FIRST, and then you get the question from a potential school system. "How much does it cost?"

There is a solution to the "sticker shock" that we face when trying to start a new FIRST team in a school system new to the concept of FIRST.
That is quite simply Vex. If you haven't given the Vex system a serious look, you should immediately!
A vex team is looking at $200 to register with FIRST, $300 to register for a regional, and perhaps $1000 to purchase two starter kits, programming modules, and extra components. Add in $500 for uniforms and other supplies and your in the FIRST game for $2000...

A much easier sell than starting a FRC team. A team can compete in FVC for a few years, being exposed to FRC, and start making sponsor contacts in the community. Once the school system sees the benefits of FIRST and the team has had a chance to understand the business side of FIRST sponsorships in successful FRC, they can begin forming that FRC team and they'll have a better chance of having a sustainable program. Even if they don't ever start a FRC team, they're still competing in a FIRST program. Get out there and help start a FVC team, it's more likely to grow into a new FRC team.
Also, if you haven't considered using Vex within your FRC program, check out the white paper in the team building section "Low Cost Robotics: Using Vex in FRC". While this isn't a step by step how-to white paper (those will be coming later), it shows the potential for using Vex to help keep costs down in FRC. We are certainly one of those teams that barely gets by with our funding. Finding ways to save money and still having some of the luxuries of well funded teams, like practice fields and practice robots, is always desirable too.