The entry fees all go towards building and maintaining a safe arena/venues for the events to take place, without them the events likely wouldn’t be able to continue - none of the above is cheap

Other events do have the paying audience (Robots Live/Extreme Robots) but Robodojo is intended more to be a club for the members to meet up and battle robots rather than be a ‘show’ put on for an audience - a lot of US events use this model and it works out well for them, and means that the events are sustainable long term. Even then, the entry fees really are good pricing wise. - it’s not much extra to tack onto your robot budget and the cheapness of hotels/airbnbs in the area more than makes up for it. I personally have zero qualms with it and I’m more than happy to pay per event if it means we have somewhere (much closer to home too) to go play more regularly!

Having been to the inaugural event the other weekend I can definitely say with zero doubt it’s well worth it per event, and like I say it means we have somewhere up north for antweights, beetleweights and featherweights when most events take place relatively far south for all three classes.