Starting a new team in a city that has largely not heard of FIRST?

[Techhexium]

Hello , I am excited to start a team in my high school, but the problem is that I live in a city where FIRST is almost unknown in. Here is a little background:

I live in San Francisco and that is where my FTC team is, it is the only FTC team in San Francisco, there are a few FLL teams in my area and there are no FRC teams. There is another FTC team within 5 miles but other teams are further away. In comparison there are many teams in the Bay Area and Northern California, and there are many tech companies here. There has never been a high school in my city involved in FIRST, my team is part of after school programs in a community center, and my team members go to different schools. My FTC team is not that great, I'll admit that half of my 7 member team go to middle school and we meet once a week.

From my experience in FIRST and the countless topics I have viewed in CD, I do have a lot of experience and contact info for some good teams and individuals involved in FIRST that are in my area, so I'm not alone here.

So I told some of my teachers and my counselor about FIRST and they were pretty interested in starting a new FTC team. (I can't start a FRC team due to budget cuts in my school) They are very excited about starting a new team in my school. They say they won't have money for the team, but my former mentor says he can get the regional sponsor for NorCal to pay for the team. I have not asked if any other students are interested yet.

So my questions for all of you are: How can I get a sponsor? How can I get students and teachers interested? How can I make sure that students won't quit? What else can I do during pre-season? Unless it necessary now, I'm not going to focus too much on team organization and fundraising, although I have fundraised by selling LED bulbs for my team.

Thank you for your time!