Team Budget Per Season

[jpetito]

We're in Los Angeles where costs are high but there are several regular and off season events relatively close; no need for hotels and etc. But this year we want to compete at three regionals, and have set a budget of 45k. Were we to win one and go to the national level, it would be another five grand plus travel and lodging and other stuff.

We do a lot of off-season work in the Shop (the former high school auto shop), teaching during the summer and fall, and use materials and equipment meanwhile. From the perspective of the community, the skills you build into your students will eventually take them to jobs in the community, and the marketing angle is that these students are the future of the local economy.

It's hard for administrators with no real workplace experience to get past the visuals in the Shop and understand the meaning behind them: skills for real jobs that command a decent wage. Then there's the sports angle- some admin who don't get the robot thing will get the competition thing and sometimes support the team. You are pretty much in the same category as the hockey team, football team, the marching band when it comes to getting people to contribute. For some teams, creating a non-profit corporation is helpful to get donations for tax write-off purposes. Don't know Canada law on this though.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by D.gimon

May I ask about the size of your student participation fees?

I would be interested to know that as well. $50,000 is a whole lot to just come from small business donations and student fees.

[Libby K]

I can do a much larger breakdown when I have some time, but 1923 hits about $130k.

That includes the FRC team (hotel & travel costs, build materials, tools, apparel, you name it), as well as registrations for two FTC teams, a large handful of FLL and Jr. FLL teams (who also raise their own money beyond what the Inventors allocate to them), and running an FRC, and FTC, and 2 FLL events in our schools during the year. Also coming down the road, a scholarship in memory of one of our students as well, details still being worked out.

We raise that money through team member fees, support from parents & friends of the team, sponsorships & grants, as well as fundraisers at the events we host.

[Jay O'Donnell]

If I remember right 1058 was around $20k-$25k last year.

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by RonnyV

As many have said above, it really depends on the amounts of students & where you're from.

We've been going to 1 regional + worlds for three years in a row. And our budget has been expanding since our first season.

In the infographic is our budget for this season. Based on +- 55 people going to 2 Regionals & Worlds. (Hopefully worlds)

So a big change for us this season!
From 36 people to 55 this year, and two regionals instead of one.

Our 2015 season budget was: 150k.


All our costs are €'s.
€198.500 = $ 225.000

Wow, what a great infographic and your team and sponsor growth is awesome!

[Sperkowsky]

WOW! I am honestly amazed by how much you guys spend.

Our team spends about $8,000 annually including registration fee's for one regional.

$5,000 - Registration
$2,000 - Robot Parts
$1,000 - New tools, and shirts.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

WOW! I am honestly amazed by how much you guys spend.

Our team spends about $8,000 annually including registration fee's for one regional.

$5,000 - Registration
$2,000 - Robot Parts
$1,000 - New tools, and shirts.

Are you saying that the entire cost of travel is paid for out of pocket by those who travel to the competition or are you one of the lucky few who have a comp in town and kids can sleep at home?

Everyone who has posted so far is including all the logistics that goes to running a team as well.

[Ari423]

At 423 our annual projected budget is usually around $15k, but has recently fallen to below $7000 (our would be budget last year had we not rushed to raise money for MARCMP). $7000 would be $5000 for FIRST registration, $500 for robot parts (we have a lot of stock in shop), and $500 for other stuff. We have had this low of a budget for a year at a time, using a lot of materials stockpiled from previous years, but we couldn't survive for years on this small budget. We carpool to our events and never stay in hotels (our farthest events within MAR are about an hour drive). Our members pay out of pocket for food. Previously we have not had a membership fee and have gotten our income from our school(s) and small business sponsors, but this year we will be instating a membership fee (amount TBD).

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Are you saying that the entire cost of travel is paid for out of pocket by those who travel to the competition or are you one of the lucky few who have a comp in town and kids can sleep at home?

Everyone who has posted so far is including all the logistics that goes to running a team as well.

If we are going to the SBPLI regional we take Buses with wheelchair lifts supplied by the school district for free and for the NYC Regional we take the LIRR which each student pays for themselves.

Whichever regional we do we sleep at home, pay for our own meals ect.

If we make worlds then each student will pay for themselves unless the school district wants to pay(they most likely will).

Our school district is really supportive giving us $7,500 a year and a room to work out of. We own all of our tools as our school as no shop of any kind.

That 8k is actually everything.

[Knufire]

5188 has a fundraising target of about $40,000 this year.

Roughly:

$10,000 for St. Louis registration, travel, lodging
$10,000 for a travel regional registration, travel, lodging
$5000 in district registration feeds
$4000 in DCMP registration fees
$1000 in district/DCMP lodging. We do many creative things to keep this cost down, such as renting out cabins at empty girl scout camps, using family members of mentors to house kids, etc.
$10,000 in yearly expenses. This includes robot parts, non-engineering consumable materials, any additional captial goods we need, etc. We generally try to have a small offseason drivetrain and two identical robots during build season.

All of this is meant to keep the team cost neutral to the students. We don't have a registration fee to join the team, but do set strict requirements that students must meet in order to travel on the team's money.

[MikeBrock]

Including Championships, I would estimate my team to use $150,000. This varies by how much you want to cover for your students and parents/mentors. We typically try to cover all expenses for our students and mentors.

[itsjustmrb]

First Regional - San Antonio($21,964)
Second Event Registration $5,000
Food $5,798 48 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver
Travel $1,250 Yellow bus and mileage to trans. Robot
Lodging (11 Rooms) $9,916 48 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver

Second Regional - Lubbock ($12,699)
First Event Registration $4,000
Food $2,829 24 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver
Travel $2,727 Yellow bus and mileage to trans. Robot
Lodging (11 Rooms) $3,143 24 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver

Third Regional - Dallas ($13,177)
Third Event Registration $4,000 Materials can change from year to year, based on the competition. These were the totals for the 2013 competition and does not include components purchased in 2012.
Food $2,829 24 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver
Travel $3,205 Yellow bus and mileage to trans. Robot
Lodging (11 Rooms) $3,143 24 Team members - 2 Sponsors -Bus Driver

Materials ($10,700)
Electronics
Motors $950 Banebots 775 & 550, Vex Robotics Cim & Bag
Speed Controllers $1,200 Jaguar, victor, spike relays
Metal, etc. $1,000
Sprockets, chains, bearings, etc. $450
Wheels $720 Banebot shooter wheels, 8" mecanum set
Gearboxes $1,300 Vex Robotics veraplanetary (varios ratios)
Chassis $1,100 Cbase and 20" nanotube
Polycarbonate $150 Lexan
Hardware $2,000 Crio, PDB, etc.
Signs $200
Practice field components $1,000 Need large practice carpet

Coaching Stipend These numbers were taken from the SFDRCISD Athletic Stipend sheet for 2012-2013. The robotics team has an offseason which includes all the training, recruitment, paperwork, build practice and meetings prior to the spring season. Our build/competition season starts during, New Years vacation, we have a regional competition during Spring Break and one during summer vacation. The robotics program has turned into a year-round program.
Coach 1
$6,930
Coach 2
$6,930

Asst Coach ($2880 x 4) $11,520 Only 2 actually applied






Miscellaneous ($16,990) These numbers include uniforms, promotional, give aways and spirit items for the regional competitions. There are several large tools that need to be purchased, the welder and plasma cutter are 2 of the most important. The $10,000 would be an annual expense to purchase other large, but different tools.
Tools (large) $10,000 Welder, plasma cutter, etc.
Tools (small) $650 hand tools, etc.
Robot Cart $250
T-Shirts, trinkets & marketing materials $1,100 Frisbees, buttons, hard hats, bunny ears
Off-season event $2,500 T-Shirt Launcher Parts, Chassis, etc.
Team Uniform $4,500 Polo and T-shirt
TOTAL: $102,289
Travel Total not including registration $34,839
These totals do not include Champs which was another ~$45000
**Hotel and travel arrangements for Mentors was not added to this budget.

[RonnyV]

Originally Posted by Mike Marandola

Wow, what a great infographic and your team and sponsor growth is awesome!

Thanks!
Very happy to say we're bringing 3 companies with us to the NYC regional. So they can see an FRC regional up close etc.
Most sponsors are material sponsors. I think 1/4th sponsors money besides materials.

Most of the money is generated by students.. They pay +- 1700 dollar (excluding food for 10 days) to come with the team to the states...
So the bar is raised quite high for our students and a regional + worlds is $$$ sadly..

I like the thread, seeing the diversity between teams!

[George1902]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

If we are going to the SBPLI regional we take Buses with wheelchair lifts supplied by the school district for free and for the NYC Regional we take the LIRR which each student pays for themselves.

A thorough budget would include both of these expenses with the contributions paying for them provided by the school district and students. Very few things are actually "free" even if the team isn't the one carrying the burden.

[GeeTwo]

As I believed before, and see from above, budgets range widely. Except as indicated specifically at the end, these numbers are valid for a team located within CONUS (lower 48 states), or in southeastern Canada; outside of that range, all the dollar requirements are much higher.

I seem to recall from a social studies class that several decades ago there was an observation that poor people spent 1/3 of their income on food and 1/3 on housing, so the "poverty line" was drawn at 3x the cost of feeding a family properly. Similarly, I'd have to place the "very low resource" (aka poverty) line at 2x the regional entry fee (that is, $10,000), excluding "housing" (that is, build space), or $15k if that included build space rental. Even assuming that they're within day-trip range of a regional or two district events, a team living below this line cannot build a second robot, cannot do much in the way of off season projects, and is at the mercy of UPS and FedEx to deliver essentially every part that is not in the KoP within a useful time frame.

Moving up a bit, teams in the $10k to $20k range (over and above works space) are capable of competing in a single "drive range" regional or two "drive range" district games, and will build a bit of inventory of various parts as seasons go by. This is where we were for our first two seasons. If we had managed to win a trip to CMP (or even a division championship if we had been in a division), we probably would have had to take a pass, unless we had an angel to bankroll us through a fundraising process. Unless supplemented by some non-monetary resources (such as a machining sponsor who will do lots of work for free, or allow access to a real machine shop) I would consider these "low resource" teams.

Teams in the $20k to $30k range (again, excluding work space) have to trade off between competing in a remote (that is, hotels required) regional and building a second robot; they are unlikely to be able to do both. (Us, last year, before winning a trip to CMP.)

Teams in the $30k to $50k range (once again, excluding work space), can probably fund two of these three activities: second robot, remote regional/district event, and district champs/CMP. After winning a trip to CMP last year, we brought ourselves up to this rank.

Teams with more than $50k in regular annual income, located in CONUS or southeastern Canada, are probably able to compete as they wish. I would imagine (not having been there) that their big budget decisions resolve what shall be funded beyond the team's FRC competition.

Beyond the lower 48 and southeastern Canada, the cost of competing in a single regional, much less beyond that regional to championships, is at least an order of magnitude above the costs incurred by a CONUS/SE Canada team. Never having competed as such, I leave this as a question for others.