Looking at the price of the ‘Nothing But Net’ goals, I’m seriously considering making my own.
Plan to use kite making techniques, fibre-grass poles joined with rubber tubing (you can make X joints and all sorts), then just some cheap netting/fabric.
I’ll cost the materials and get back to you… hopefully with a completed picture.
Anyone else thinking of this?
I was thinking about doing this too because the price does seem high, but I’m concerned about the “bounce” of the low goal netting. If my DIY netting has too much, or too little, rebound action this could put our team at a disadvantage when we begin competing on the real thing.
Now that I’m writing this I’m thinking I could review the official game video and watch the rebound action of the balls being tossed at the low goal.
This might possibly be very helpful. I am thinking about the same thing. All you really need to practice is the goal set at correct distance.
Please update us on your progress. Thank you.
Try aiming your projectile into the low goal. That might just help a lot with whatever sorts of bouncing.
So:
Back pole = 45.24 inch (1.149 m)
Front poles = 41.24 inch (1.0475 m)
Top goal pieces
sides = 18.35 inch (0.466 m)
front = 21.91 inch (0.5565 m)
Costing fibre glass poles this is around £20 ($30 USD) from ebay. Still worth it for the £51 or $70 USD price on VEX.
Pole sizes, calculated from field specs.
Just brought everything I need to make it for £15.80. Will be making it late next week.
I was thinking of doing something like this, except with a small size PVC pipe (1/2" x 10’ for $2) and some flexible tubing and a couple of zipties for the the joints.
We ordered the game pieces with some resistance. $500 for this setup seems very high.
I watched people playing with the balls at the NBN demo at Worlds and I did see times when the balls bounced out of the low goal nets. This is probably going to be a concern, especially for kids shooting from a long distance or from the side. Hitting the diagonal rod might also cause bounces - not sure.
I am a little puzzled that the price for the game pieces this year is the same as the SkyRise stuff. The SkyRise stuff looked substantial, and mostly custom-made, but why a bunch of balls and some nets cost the same does kinda baffle me. Maybe the steel brackets? 
I don’t think there is any real reason. The game objects this year clearly cost substantially less than Skyrise (to manufacture). But the game kit is traditionally $500 so I think they just kept it there. It looks like it should cost 200-250 tops.
However, the game objects kit does come with the new corner brackets for the field…so I supposed that’s 40 bucks.
Basic economic theory - what the market will bear…
Previous years had many more custom parts where the profit margin had to be less. But this year the profit margin has to be insanely high for this game. The balls are a slight modification from a standard ball part. So should not be a total custom cost there like other older parts. The assembly is custom but the parts look fairly common outside of the corner joining elements on the nets and brackets for the pipe. Brackets are a cut of a pipe and a weld with some holes drilled. Again, not the most complex manufacturing and assembly.
With 10,000 teams there has to be about 4,000 - 6,000 field kits sold in a year I would guess. Total guess on my part. So an initial production order of 2,000 initial kits should get you to scale pricing at a certain level but not ridiculous cheap levels that a million units would.
supply and demand, if vex can sell them for $500, they will.
Perhaps they are testing the elasticity of the supply-and-demand curve. Perhaps somebody can find a source of similar, readily-available balls and do a comparison test. Since accuracy and precision are important, extensive testing will be necessary, and I don’t think every team out there will want to spend so much for foam balls that they might find at Walmart, etc. 
I’m just saying.
The foam balls, while quite common in material, aren’t something you can get at stores because of the size. However, that doesn’t mean they are out of the ordinary and most likely aren’t custom (except the printing).
While the profit margin does seem rather high as compared to previous years, VEX is a company, and companies have to make money to stay in business. Especially with lifts being completely banned this year, I feel as though the field objects have to be a revenue stream they are relying on for this year.
Looking at the photo of the field makes me wonder: is the low goal cross beam the same as a skyrise pole?
It is thicker than before I think. Appendix A of this year page 9 shows this year it is a 3.5" pipe.
I’ve looked for balls and have found some foam balls the same size but the price isn’t much better than the VEX price for just the Balls, so you might as well get the balls from VEX. Although I have brought a few non-VEX balls to use till the real ones are available.
I’m still building the goal myself and saving around £30 ($US 50) per goal to spend on robot parts.
my team is going to get these http://cdn.opentip.com/Toys-Games/Brybelly-Inch-Pro-Mini-Foam-Basketball-p-4322320.html?gclid=CJLmlc7Jj8UCFZE1aQodnZcABQ
until the real objects are available.
Other than field, I guess VEX is pushing a complete aluminum revolution this year, with a game in which everyone hates to see steel alliance partners. But who knows? Maybe Skyrise season has generated more profit because everyone needed structure.
Edit: nice seeing you and your team members at worlds!
I would just like to say that I actually found foam balls of the correct size at Walmart. I brought a tape measure to the story and hunted around the toy section. It is a foam ball but I’m not sure if it is the exact same material. My impression is that it is not but I assume it is very similar. I’ll use these Walmart balls for early testing before the real ones are released.