Cost of going to Championship

[AlbatrossAgain]

It is curious to see that of the 12 teams that were on Einstein last year, and could go to the World Championship for free, two are not going: 207 & 548. My guess is that it had to do with costs associated with travelling to St. Louis.

What additional costs/challenges are there to going to world's, other than the entry fee? Does anyone have any ballpark figures on how much travel and other expenses are for an average team (as if there were an average FIRST team )?

[Billfred]

The registration for one event was free, and a bid was open for Championship (as though they had won). Championship itself wasn't paid for, technically.

The biggest expenses are then travel and hotels, neither of which is cheap for any team going to St. Louis but doubly so for 207 out of California. If you have a resource like a paid-for event, you may find more inspiration or bang for your buck in staying closer to home.

[MrForbes]

I think it'll cost us around twenty grand.....

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

I think it'll cost us around twenty grand.....

Yep. 50-ish kids, 15-ish adults. Registration, robot spares/upgrades, flights, hotels, toting a trailer with the pit setup ... it all adds up. At least in St. Louis everything's in walking distance. In Atlanta we wound up staying in Marietta and getting rental vans since it was ~$1600 less overall -- yet in '11-'13 by the time we find out we're going to Champs we can't find a reasonable deal on the rental vans.

Meh.

Most of the travel comes out of each individual traveler's pocket. We're lucky in that respect. Grants & sponsors pay for registration, robot upgrades. Trailer hauling/parking (we also bring some other teams' stuff usually) is roughly $1k since we tune up whoever's vehicle so the pull through the mountains isn't as bad, and that's from team funds as well. It may seem like a lot just for a pit, but we're asking the driver to pull two 15-hour overnight driving trips through mountains (and praries ) -- and not having the right tools at the right time would undermine the entire $20k trip.

[ZoeR]

I don't know the exact cost of this years trip. I think it's around 20k, though. What my team does is stay in houses in the area so we can make our own food and pack lunches, plus the price of one night to sleep 18 is about the price of renting 3 hotel rooms near the Dome for one night. We save a lot of money doing this.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by AlbatrossAgain

It is curious to see that of the 12 teams that were on Einstein last year, and could go to the World Championship for free, two are not going: 207 & 548. My guess is that it had to do with costs associated with travelling to St. Louis.

What additional costs/challenges are there to going to world's, other than the entry fee? Does anyone have any ballpark figures on how much travel and other expenses are for an average team (as if there were an average FIRST team )?

These teams were offered automatic spots for CMP not a free ticket. They were treated the same as HOF or Legacy Teams. They still had to pay their registration costs.

There is no free lunch... or free CMP...


We are a team that usually takes about 25 students to CMP. Our costs are in the neighborhood of $9000 for airfare,
$8000 for hotel $5000 for registration $2000 for shipping pit supplies/incidentals...so a total of approximately $25,000 to attend.
We are from Seattle so your airfare might vary... we get our airline tickets early...

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

These teams were offered automatic spots for CMP not a free ticket. They were treated the same as HOF or Legacy Teams. They still had to pay their registration costs.

There is no free lunch... or free CMP...

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I think when we won the Regional Chairman's Award in 2010, the entry fee was waived.

[hiyou102]

We have our initial registration/the cost of one regional waived. After that we were on our own.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by hiyou102

We have our initial registration/the cost of one regional waived. After that we were on our own.

So this is interesting news from one of the 2013 Einstein teams. I didn't know that.
It really amounts to the same thing. A waiver of the initial registration is the same $$$ as paying for CMP. I stand corrected.

I guess I missed that somewhere along the way. I never saw that announcement from FIRST.

[who716]

Originally Posted by hiyou102

We have our initial registration/the cost of one regional waived. After that we were on our own.

that sounds like the same thing we have, we decided to go to championship last year and it was quite the experience but since we went we could only afford to go to one event this year. being the one that is payed for by our school. hopefully we can make the trip again next year as 1/3 of the team members will be seniors.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I think when we won the Regional Chairman's Award in 2010, the entry fee was waived.

That would be news... we have won RCA three times and had to pay the registraion fee every time. I believe that this year NASA will pay the registration fee for Engineering Inspiration winners and last year they gave $3000 towards registration but no one that I know of gets out of paying the registration fee.

I do believe that some regionals may have separate awards that they give that might cover registration or part of it but those would be specific to regionals.

If anyone out there knows something that I don't please add to the conversation.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

That would be news... we have won RCA three times and had to pay the registraion fee every time. I believe that this year NASA will pay the registration fee for Engineering Inspiration winners and last year they gave $3000 towards registration but no one that I know of gets out of paying the registration fee.

I do believe that some regionals may have separate awards that they give that might cover registration or part of it but those would be specific to regionals.

If anyone out there knows something that I don't please add to the conversation.

I apologize, I did in fact mis-remember. I delved back through some old emails from that time, and yes, we did still have to pay that fee. I don't know where I remember it from, but I could swear that at some point, the championship fee was waived for the winner of some award or another. As others have said though, it could have been a third party of some sort.

[thefro526]

Teams on Einstein last year had their entry fee waived this year.

We fully understand and are deeply troubled our Einstein teams were not able to compete in an environment without interference. While it is not possible to re-create a perfected 2012 Championship, we are guaranteeing each of the 12 Einstein teams will receive a berth at the 2013 Championship. In addition, in recognition of the Einstein teams’ contribution of time and effort throughout the investigation, FIRST has waived their 2013 FRC season first-play registration fee.

By waiving the 5k initial registration, FIRST basically gave any team that would have otherwise returned a free championship. (At least free registration)

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...einsteinreport

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

I apologize, I did in fact mis-remember. I delved back through some old emails from that time, and yes, we did still have to pay that fee. I don't know where I remember it from, but I could swear that at some point, the championship fee was waived for the winner of some award or another. As others have said though, it could have been a third party of some sort.

MMSD (school district) paid it for us.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

MMSD (school district) paid it for us.

Okay, yeah that sounds familiar. I swear I remember something about it being announced at the regional though. I'll ask around at the next meeting.