AlwaysImprove wrote:Just to answer a few questions:
ASA everyone was traveling for berths and for the tournament.
I don't think the overall problem was having to travel, it was having to travel to the worst logistical location in the USA for travel. ASA should have considered suburbs of Chicago, Denver, Memphis, Atlanta, or 200 other cities in the USA big enough to have an airport with more than one flight a day. If they would have accommodated a bit they could have avoided PGF.
ASA gave away berths as well. They would usually give away berths to fill out their tournaments from team 105 to 132, for instance. PGF uses their berths to increase competitiveness of the tournament and get more of the USA to participate. They keep doing that, and they will be hard to beat.
I look at the teams in Vegas and a number of them could easily have gone to Oregon. Not real sure why everyone choose to go to Vegas.
I do like the formula of allocating more berths based on teams in the tournament. But you have to be careful as most of the teams are traveling from SoCal. If they can just stay in SoCal they may not travel. Berths also have to be distributed such that the number of berths equals the number the want for the tournament.
I think total number of Premier berths is now 72. PGF is smart for keeping that number somewhat constrained. One of the main problems with ASA nationals was when they were letting their high end tournaments swell to 140+ teams.
ASA accepted bids, apparently the highest bidder, regardless of location got it...know of a couple crappy places that got the tourneys...Area near here tried, but said it would be 5 figures. as a start $25k+ before they'd even consider using a venue...Local place with great facilities, airports and rooms and plenty to do nearby...and Montgomery got it...yes...I was packing...do every time I drive anywhere near Montgomery...