The District System

[Francis-134]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

That is correct.

In thinking about MSC and the costs, I'm no longer quite upset at FIRST as I was before. Consider that the Michigan District system supplanted something on the order of 7 regional events.

*Warning - Guesstimates Below*
In the standard regional event, you have somewhere around 60 teams. 60 * 7 (old Michigan regionals) = 420 "teams" that played during those events.

At the time, Michigan had approximately 150 teams. That means that is every team in Michigan played IN Michigan for their first event, those regionals still generated (420-150) * 5,000 = $1.35 million dollars.

FIRST's money comes from somewhere. It isn't all donated. I'm sure their loss due to the FiM system is much less than that in reality. There's some overlap, in that some of those 270 'teams' that used to play in Michigan play else where instead, so FIRST doesn't really lose that all that money. If someone would like to quantify this in a better manner, please do.

In it's place, FIRST made Michigan teams pay for entry into State Championships. That's around $320,000. If I haven't overlooked something major, it appears that FIRST may have lost a very substantial amount of money letting Michigan go to a district system. Have I missed something major in my guesstimates?

Oops, should have added this too.

Everything I have heard form the NE FIRST crew says that the $5k you pay for your district registration fee goes directly to FIRST as well. However, the money you pay for a 3rd + district goes directly to the district, and the fee is set by the district.