Up until this year Indiana had been at about $100 per team for the Indiana State Tournament. However, today we learned the price was jumping to $200 per team.
What are other states charging for their State Tournaments?
Illinois is still at $100 (42)
Hawaii = $105 (40)
Michigan = $205 (48)
Colorado = $100 (24)
Arkansas = $125 (32)
@Powerbelly it looks like Indiana is one of the top ones in price:
I have been told that these are all the ones listed on robotevents currently and in order by price for HS:
state/region HS
Virginia $300
Michigan $205
Indiana $200
Pennsylvania (east) $200
Tennessee $155
Ohio $150
Florida $150
Maryland $150
Massachusetts $150
Minnesota $150
New Hampshire $150
New Jersey $150
Oklahoma $150
Texas (south) $150
Texas (north) $150
Mississippi $125
New York (south) $125
New York (north) $125
Pennsylvania (west) $125
Hawaii $105
North Carolina $105
Illinios $100
Arizona $100
Colorado $100
Delaware $100
Georgia $100
Louisiana $100
Maine $100
Nebraska $100
Nevada $100
North Dakota $100
South Carolina $100
Washington $100
Kentucky $80
Missouri $75
Utah $50
West Virginia $50
Wyoming $50
South Dakota $40
Texas (west) $40
Idaho $35
Oregon (G) $30
Oregon (P) $30
Montana $0
Average $113
Wow!
It is hard to believe that Indiana would be one of the most expensive ones in the country. Not sure how we will pay for it. Frustrating to say the least.
Seems like we have it easy in the UK. All our events are free of charge to attend.
$300 is well worth the price in Virginia. States here is a grand event.
I don’t care how “grand” it is if my team can’t even afford to go.
We were hoping to go to US Open but I’m not sure how we’ll be able to both now.
yeah, I’m on this train as well. Who asked for a grander event? Zionsville gym was fine last year.
Best argument I can make is that for teams that don’t go any further than state this is a better end of the year experience (assuming the rumors about venue are true).
For teams like mine that regularly attend worlds and the US open and get to see competition on a grander scale, this is to us a frivolous expense.
also cutting it down to 48 teams is to me concerning.
Our states used to be $200, but it’s also that we have ours in a nice venue. Not speaking for our great State Organizers, but they do a fabulous job of hosting everybody in one building and having all the programs under one roof.
It wouldn’t feel right really splitting up our VRC and IQ States, and there’s not a lot of venues in our area that are affordable, readily available, and that can accommodate four big tournaments at one time.
Our State Championship is a spectacle to say the least. We just couldn’t fit everything and have it look nice in a HS gym.
Well, last year was (originally) 60 teams with 10 of those being middle school. So High School is only going down 2 spots.
didn’t think about that, good point,
For $200 I am expecting some laser light shows, robots dropping in from the roof to the field. In addition, we can also look forward to add Parking Fees, $3.50 for Dasani, $10 popcorn, $6 hotdogs .
I agree. I wish we could go back to Zionsville and give teams that have funding issues the chance to go to Worlds or US Open.
We are a well funded team, I feel bad for the teams who this price will cause an undue burden on the team and it’s members.
We had a city tournament two years ago where it was VRC and IQ. The finals were painfully slow since they ran a IQ match followed by a VRC match and so on.
please no…
California was $250 when it was one event a few years back, then they split it and it dropped to $200. It went back up to $250 last year and they haven’t announced/released the event(s) this year.
Is this for real? Why are all your events free? Is it one of the RECF measures to increase country’s involvement
I mean we don’t do that, they run at separate times, but doing all the awards for the season at once feels nice. It makes IQ feel less of an unwanted stepchild.
I am hoping that they come up with a solution for teams that simply cannot afford this. This year, it is as though the RECF has determined that STEM should only be fun and accessible if you have a lot of money. I am hopeful about the state since the event partner is a non-profit that has a stated goal of making STEM accessible. They have helped a lot of inner city schools get programs started. I am eager to see what they end up doing to make the state championship fit within their mission, assuming that mission has not changed.
Here are a couple of links from their site:
https://www.techpointyouth.org/past-projects
Notice this under the City of Indianapolis initiative:
“With the support of our Guiding Coalition partners, we recruit STEM professionals to work with vetted, high-impact programs in order to significantly increase STEM mentoring opportunities for girls, minorities, and low-income youth.”
https://www.techpointyouth.org/robots/
Notice that 75% are Title 1 schools
Finally, this link:
https://www.techpointyouth.org/who-we-are
"VISION
Access to a STEM learning opportunity for every underserved student in Indiana."
Unless something has changed, and I do not think that is the case, I believe they will figure something out. At the very least, I hope so.
For our team, based in Indianapolis, this is a double hit to our budget. For the past several years we have enjoyed competing in the Indianapolis City VRC tournament, which was open to teams based in Marion County and was free to enter. This was a great tournament and opened the door for many smaller schools and organizations to get started in Vex inexpensively. Now, the Indy VRC tournament has been canceled and the organizers are running the State tournament instead, with an increase in entry fee for State. I was hoping the corporate sponsors that allowed the City tournament to be free of charge would transfer to State and reduce the entry fee. No such luck. The net result is that our team is having to reduce the number of tournaments we compete in this year. It’s unfortunate that registration and entry fees have become the majority of our expenses, before even considering CREATE and Worlds.
We feel your pain. The increase in qualifying tournament registration fees can be directly tied to the new and increased fees from RECF to event partners. That can explain an increase of $15-$25 but it does not explain an increase of $100 per team for the state tournament.
I have heard rumors about the location. If there is any truth to the rumors, it will mean an increase in other costs associated with going to state as well. As @Powerbelly mentioned, there will be an increase in expense in parking going from free to around $20 or possibly more for the day, and that is per vehicle. This will mean fewer spectators. With my teams, the few families that actually can afford to have a car will not be able to afford to pay for parking. Then there is the concessions. Eric at Zionsville as well as all the EPs in Indiana have always had affordable concessions and were still able to make a profit to fund their programs. If rumors are true, the concessions will be way more expensive and none of it going to robotics.
I hope it is not too late to fix this.