Agreed. Competitions are a learning experience for students. Those prices are really prohibitive for student fans.
Completely agree and as a college student, I would love to go but I don't have that just laying around. I thought the 15 dollars a great river was a lot.. Ahahah
While they may be a learning experience, they are also primary fundraisers for most choir programs. They are usually held at schools where the host choir doesn't have to pay rent and most of the labor is donated and many costs are underwritten and money is made on concessions and any other way the host choir can think of to squeeze out a few more dollars (shout outs, flowers, candy grams, best seat in the house, I've seen some really creative things in the 10 years I've been a show choir mom!). FAME, I believe, is a for profit organization that has is not only in it for the money, but also has to rent the venue and pay for labor (light and sound techs, ushers, janitorial staff, ticket office staff, etc.), most of whom work for union scale, and union rules. They make money on the regional events by charging a large fee per participating student. As you may have noticed, lately these regional events are not as well attended as in the past or are quite a bit smaller than Nationals. The fee they're charging for Nationals is about 5x less per student than what they charge for their regional competition (if memory serves correctly...it's been a while since I've priced going to a regional). Another issue is space. I know that at the New York venue this year they sold out of general admission tickets and many of the parents/fans were only able to buy a ticket that allowed them to watch their school and perhaps the one before and one after (these were people who hadn't purchased the package with their choir and had made their own arrangements for their trip). Finally, the field for National is likely to be full and the choirs will be the the best in the country, each worthy of being there on a national level. When I look at the number and caliber of choirs attending, $75 for 2 days of top quality entertainment doesn't seem so bad. I pay that to go to a national Broadway tour show in my home town and that's only about 3 hours of entertainment (and they did move it out of down town Chicago so lodging is way less expensive....half the price and not having to pay $60/night to park is a huge savings!)
Very nice input. I think a lot of us forget that FAME is actually trying to make money. They do have a massive amount of overhead costs that they face to put on these regional competitions. So profit is not a huge margin. I wish the tickets were at the price that most other competitions are but then FAME would not be existent anymore.
Agreed. Competitions are a learning experience for students. Those prices are really prohibitive for student fans.
While they may be a learning experience, they are also primary fundraisers for most choir programs. They are usually held at schools where the host choir doesn't have to pay rent and most of the labor is donated and many costs are underwritten and money is made on concessions and any other way the host choir can think of to squeeze out a few more dollars (shout outs, flowers, candy grams, best seat in the house, I've seen some really creative things in the 10 years I've been a show choir mom!). FAME, I believe, is a for profit organization that has is not only in it for the money, but also has to rent the venue and pay for labor (light and sound techs, ushers, janitorial staff, ticket office staff, etc.), most of whom work for union scale, and union rules. They make money on the regional events by charging a large fee per participating student. As you may have noticed, lately these regional events are not as well attended as in the past or are quite a bit smaller than Nationals. The fee they're charging for Nationals is about 5x less per student than what they charge for their regional competition (if memory serves correctly...it's been a while since I've priced going to a regional). Another issue is space. I know that at the New York venue this year they sold out of general admission tickets and many of the parents/fans were only able to buy a ticket that allowed them to watch their school and perhaps the one before and one after (these were people who hadn't purchased the package with their choir and had made their own arrangements for their trip). Finally, the field for National is likely to be full and the choirs will be the the best in the country, each worthy of being there on a national level. When I look at the number and caliber of choirs attending, $75 for 2 days of top quality entertainment doesn't seem so bad. I pay that to go to a national Broadway tour show in my home town and that's only about 3 hours of entertainment (and they did move it out of down town Chicago so lodging is way less expensive....half the price and not having to pay $60/night to park is a huge savings!)
I'm trying to convince my parents to fly out here with me to attend this... all of the show choirs in the FAME events so far are legendary. Plus then we could spend the weekend in Chicago! If only plane tickets were cheaper If not then my show choir friends and I are gonna have a FAME Nationals LiveStream party!
Did ALA qualify somewhere else?
I believe ALA was invited to the FAME National Finals for winning the Heart of America Invitational. Originally ALA was planning to attend FAME Hollywood, but since it was cancelled FAME extended an invite.
Comments on their YouTube video show that they're fundraising to attend the National Finals. I'm not sure whether they have reached their goal.
If not then my show choir friends and I are gonna have a FAME Nationals LiveStream party! 
Perhaps you could answer that for Prairie?