PNW introducing new funding model

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Steven Donow

The net change of total expenditure is 0 (except I'm unsure as to what the $256,000 'program fee' to FIRST is), but the cost to teams is (theoretically) less.

Originally Posted by Madison

As I understand it, the program fee is a payment to FIRST that, effectively, covers losses to FIRST because money from teams is going directly to the district governing body rather than to HQ. It's not unlike a licensing fee.

It's probably not a coincidence that the $256,000 program fee to FIRST is equal to 64*4000, which is the number of teams that compete at the PNW Championship times the event registration fee.