The District System

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

I'm all for more time on the field. Running a small team for 5 years, I understand the disparity in FIRST. I'm just concerned about the economic strain for any team that makes it out of the State competition. There is a huge difference in 2 and 3 paid events a year. The only way this makes sense is for those who qualify for states to go for free. FIRST wants to follow the state athletics model. That's what they do: competing in the State competition is free.

I love a lot about the district model personally, but an issue I know the state we both have teams in is going to run into a money issue. 5/6 teams who won awards at the Virginia Regional only attended one regional event and some barely made the financial cut for championships to the point where 422 was subsidizing the costs for merit based teams to go. There are a lot of reasons some of these teams aren't making enough money, but putting less strain on all teams by dropping the requirement a state/regional CMP $4k registration fee would be nice.