The President gets it !!!!

[Trent B]

Originally Posted by santosh

...Yeah, but in tax money received back, those stadiums most certainly pay for themselves after a few year's and more...

Yea and after it is paid off via tickets and other things, the money is then put towards sports teams and a new stadium which is put towards training new players and making a new stadium. If we can't afford to build a stadium in a few years because of an economic depression, what good will training a bunch of professional league grade players do to benefit us as a society. Yet 20k for a robotics team which will train a bunch of individuals on future skills cant be done.

[nathanww]

The other part of this is that not all of your return on investment is necessarily in money. If you spend the money on a new stadium, you might make a profit. If you spend the money on upgrading school lab facilities, you might inspire someone to make a vaccine for HIV.

Thta's one of the things I love about FIRST--I think the idea of combining a sporting event and scitech education is one of the best ways to effect this culture change.