Is there usually this much frustration?

[topgun]

My frustration is the relentless money raising.

It's incredibly frustrating to spend 6.5 weeks, plus all the fall season hours, plus the time leading up to the regional to play 9 matches (or maybe a few more if you make the eliminations). This is even more frustrating if you have robot problems that prevent fulfilling matches (not a FIRST problem, a team problem).

Last year my team played 11 matches (9 quals, 2 elims). We only made one practice match during the practice day. We went to a pre-ship and played (being generous in that term) several matches. We went to a fall competition and and did pretty well, got in a bunch of matches and the team felt good.

Last year the ThunderChickens played 99 matches (according to TBA). In other words, if we keep going at the same pace, it would take us 9 years to play the same number of matches. The comparison in learning for the students is similarly skewed. Students learn by playing matches and anything that prevents more matches is a problem. When it costs $400 to play a match ($4000/avg 10 matches), it's hard to see the payback.

A big inhibitor to this is the field. It takes many people a day to set up and take down a field. That makes a setting up for a quick weekend event difficult. It would be nice to have a permanent field location to simply go and play a series of matches against a bunch of teams (school conference teams, regional teams, etc). So when I win the lottery I can make that happen.

That's why I am interested in the MI district model.