Limit team $

[KrazyCarl92]

Such a limit would incentivize a smaller team size. It costs us more to go to tournaments than most teams because we do not have any regionals closer than 2 and a half hours away and we have an 83 student team to accommodate for travelling and lodging. $50k wouldn't even get our team registration, travelling, and lodging for all of our tournaments in a single year.

This may also discourage partnerships with companies through sponsorship, which is something FIRST wants to encourage. Therefore, such a limit will directly conflict with FIRST's mission and goals. FRC has a price limit on the robots for this reason, but there are too many factors that make it problematic to impose an overall budget limit on teams. Besides, what if we decide we pay for only the skeleton crew on the FIRST limited budget, then send the rest of the team as "independent spectators" who are really team members through a different funding organization? This would be incredibly difficult to enforce.

If an organization has clear and concise goals, like FIRST has, it is detrimental to make choices and impose limitations on oneself which directly conflict with achieving those goals.