Jess,
I was going to let your last remarks go, but since Joe Uncool can't read and decided to drag me back here, I'll address you as well.
You are still overpricing and overestimating costs to try and make yourself look correct. I told you I found flights from your area for around $400-450 round trip. I don't see why or how this proves anything other than you don't know how to shop for the lowest prices. This isn't "turning up the volume" at all, it's just pointing out the facts. And you are correct, normally how much you spend on travel and how you travel is your business, and no one else's. But no one forced you to come into this thread and complain publically about it either. YOU made that choice and now you must live with the consequences of that choice, which is people picking apart what you post when you post incorrectly. If you didn't want scrutiny, then don't post about it. Simple as that.
The tournament got away from Reno 2 years ago....to Baton Rouge. Guess what, the number of teams dropped from the prior years. There was no pick-up from all the people in the East who think it is too expensive to go to Reno. There was no pick-up from people tired of Reno and wanting to go somewhere else. There was no pick up at all. There are two causes for this, one, the total drop in Memberships giving the USBC less to draw from and people still suffering because of the economic downturn. Neither one of these are going away anytime soon. So all of the blue collar east of the Mississippi folks could have made a statement.....show an increase in team entries in Baton Rouge, prove you want it in the East and you will support it and we get........nothing. All we have is lower numbers.
Would you tell any other business to take a loss to produce a product? Why should the USBC be forced to take a loss to run this tournament? That is one of the stupidest things I have heard yet on this topic. I would say 99% of every tournament ever run, is done so to make a profit. Sometime that profit is used to donate to charity, sometimes it goes into the pockets of the tournament organizers, but no tournament will continue if it doesn't make money. You must be living with Joe in his fantasy world.
What I said was, those that seem to complain the most, should get off their butts and do something about it. You want change, you need to make it happen. Coming onto a message board the USBC doesn't even look at to complain about it is stupid. All you are doing is talking to hear yourself talk. It has been shown time and time again that one person can make a difference. But instead you choose to say "not my job". Well then, guess what, the tournament is in Reno more often than not. You can sob, cry, whine, complain all you want....nothing is going to change. And why, it's because you are too lazy to put any effort into changing it. That's you Jess, Joe, and all the rest who come on here and complain. You can yell and scream at me all you like, but that doesn't change that fact. If you REALLY cared as much as you want everyone to believe you do, than you would do something about. You act like it takes 20 hours a week to do this....it takes only a few minutes. Start by researching the local convention center board online. Write them a letter stating your purpose. Follow-up with a phone call or meeting if needed. See if they are will to undertake this. In a month you would have spent maybe 1-2 hours on it. You really don't have 1-2 hours in an entire month of time?!? Guess what...if you put all the time it took you to compose and write all these replies, you'd be most of the way there.