Would Teams be willing to hold Nats in a different place if anyone could Go?

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by mnkysp6353
Also Disney is also beeing unfare, we give them almost 3 million dollars in profit a year...

While that may be the total number for how much money FIRST teams give them(I'm not even sure if it's that,) I highly doubt that all of that is profit. I haven't actually seen the numbers for what all of the event "village" setup costs them, but I imagine it is well into the millions of dollars, between the initial setup and the actual costs of running everything, from the pit power(a considerable amount of money alone, I'm sure), to the air conditioning, to the big screens and blasting music that we've all come to expect at a FIRST competition. Also, as the time lapse that they've showed us at Nationals the last few years shows, the event village is being set up months before we arrive, probably even before the regionals begin. So you also have to look at the costs of all the manpower that is being redirected from elsewhere on the Disney property to set up the site.

I won't deny that they most likely are making a profit from FIRST, and perhaps the recognition they give in return could be a bit better, but based on what I can tell from seeing the growth of Nationals over the past 4 years, I have a feeling their profit is not nearly as much as we may think...

Originally posted by mnkysp6353
I also want to know about this new charge for teams staying of of Disney property?

The packages that FIRST and Disney arrange for teams competing include an extra cost to help subsidize the cost of the event "village," buses to the village, team party, etc. However, with some teams booking outside of the Disney package, in effect, the teams who booked within the Disney package were paying for the teams who booked outside of "the package" for Nationals. Example:

-Team A pays for the Disney package for their team. They are staying off site, at a hotel that would normally not have direct transportation to Disney, but because of the package deal, Disney is providing busses to the site.

-Team B goes through their own travel agent to get everything for Nationals. They are staying at the same hotel as team A, have the same park passes, etc. but since they did not book using the Disney package, they did not have to pay the extra cost for the busses, event village, etc. However, since there was a Disney package for their hotel, there's still a Disney-provided bus that can take them directly to the event site.

-Essentially, team A is paying not only for their own use of the busses and event facilities, but also for team B! I used an off-site example here, but the same thing applies to teams who are staying on-site, but not using the Disney/FIRST packages for doing so.

The new "event fee" for teams who book outside of the Disney/FIRST package, not who stay off Disney property, is an attempt to prevent this from happening. As far as I can tell, it's only fair...