I’ve always wondered what the regional registration fees were for and where they go?
Where do you think they go?
The planning, reserving the arena, things that FIRST needs to buy, to run a field, your kit of parts… there are probably a lot more… these are some from top of my head… 
I think Jeremy was gonna give us all the answers.
Good idea though Jeremy, see what people think all that money really goes to before you spill the beans.
For regionals the easy answer for where the money goes is the Location.
But, I am guessing that there are a lot more than that.
Helping run a couple of non-first events have given me some idea’s where the money goes as well.
I want to see what others think that are not involved in the planning believe the money goes to before I start my lengthy list.
But here is a start. And the magic words for this are “Events Coordinator” and “Logistics” Both of which are very under appreciated groups of people with a huge job ahead of them.
- Location - Probably the biggest key in holding a regional. Acquiring not only the permission to use the venue, but also securing the dates way ahead of time and having that date not conflict with another event. (ie: Many regionals are in March. We can’t hold regionals on the same weekend as a March Madness tourney in the same place now can we?) This may require a deposit - and then a final payment of the arena/school or wherever it is going to be held.
- Now that we have a location we need Food. There are a lot of people at these competitions. How are you going to feed everyone. This may come under the contract with the venue, but may also include a separate catering/food craft services. (ie: In Houston and Georgia, the Stadium and the Dome respectively handled it all. That adds to the total cost of the contract with the venue. - Whereas, in UTC this year I believe we had a separate vending company come in and feed everyone.)
- Now that we have the location and food, we need. Music!!! Mostly handled by a DJ these need to be screened and made sure that appropriate music for a HS event is played. Also, since a regional is a 3 day event it’s nice if they had more than just the latest copy of “Now that’s What I call Music.” 8 hours a day times 3 days means you need approximately 24 hours of music. Or less, depending on if you care if songs are repeated over the 3 days, and specific songs that FIRST uses for the awards. (ie: Smashmouth’s All star and others for specific awards)
So… that’s just a handful of things that need to be done. How many more can you think of that happen or need to happen for a successful regional.
How about thinking in smaller terms and thinking about what it takes to run a 1 day mini-comp.
In the end, it’s all the same just quantity and time the specific service is needed.
To change 16 student’s lives forever.
- Shipping the fields. There are a lot of components (a tractor trailer worth, or so) that need to be shipped to a different part of the country each week. Trucks don’t drive for free.
- The fields. I don’t think FIRST has a foundry or carpet factory. The materials come from somewhere.
- Lodging for FIRST staff at regionals/championship, but that’s probably small compared to the other two.
The fees do cover the KOP. They do pay for shipping. They do pay for staff. They do pay for promotional items. They do pay for fields. they do pay for development of games and field engineering. They pay for web space and development. They cover scoring systems. They help some regionals stay afloat.
They do not pay for venues (some for Championship). They don’t pay for team parties. They don’t pay for volunteer food at events. They don’t pay for any regional costs, eg video, audio.
Well said, I attended the Sac Reg Planning Committee last year, and was shocked that the fees do not cover Regional Competition expenses (venue, A/V, Parties, etc…) It takes anywhere from $150,000 - $250,000 (for the west coast ones I’ve heard of) to hold a regional. Most successful regionals are generously sponsored by local companies / corporations. FIRST helps out some of the regionals if they are in a bind, but it is their goal for the regionals to be self-sufficient after 3 years or so. I understand this why the Pacific Northwest Regional moved a few years ago from Seattle to Portland. It was having trouble sustaining itself in Seattle.