A Question for Tournament Directors

In addition to chess, my other board game hobby is APBA baseball. Since COVID I've attended a few tournaments and just got back from the 2nd Annual Shoeless Joe Jackson APBA tournament in Greenville, SC. It cost $40 and that included a ticket to a minor league baseball game. The winner got a fancy trophy (see above) and the worst team got the 1920 season player cards (I just missed out on that!)

When I registered for the tournament, I got a welcome email and prior to the event I got emails with places to eat, things to do, and an itinerary for the other events associated with the tournament (visit to the Joe Jackson Memorial Park and visit to the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum.) I played eight games in a hotel meeting room with standings, schedule, and results displayed on the monitor in the room.

It was about a five hour drive, day off from work, a couple of nights in a hotel and, including meals, cost a few hundred bucks. I had a blast meeting old friends and new.

Now let's contrast this with the OTB tournaments that I've been to.

When I register for an OTB tournament, the only acknowledgement I have is the email from paypal. There are no follow-up emails and there's no "thanks for coming" from the tournament director. There's no list of places close by for lunch given to the out-of-towners.

While I had to bring the player cards for the team I was going to use, the tournament director supplied game boards and dice. Chess tournaments have players bring their own sets and clocks.

Chess tournaments don't start on time but they'll get caught up by "making it up at lunch."

You have to stand around and wait for pairings to be printed out and everyone huddles around a table looking at it instead of having it displayed.

The tournaments I've played in have been held in churches and school libraries where lighting and space can be at a premium. If there's a skittles room, it's filled with parents with non-playing children and, as it fills up with players, it can be so loud that you can barely hear yourself think.

I didn't have to sit out a round in my APBA tournament. I got a bye in the 2nd round of my most recent chess tournament and, rather than sit around for 3 hours, I withdrew and went home. At a tournament earlier in the year, I saw a HS-aged player in his first tournament that got a bye stand there wondering why he didn't get a game. In both instances there wasn't a house player available.

In my most recent tournament there were 47 players in three sections. The U1200 section had 25 players representing 53% of the players yet they received 31% of the prize money. The weaker players are subsidizing the stronger players.

I'm an adult beginner/improver and don't mind traveling for a hobby. So I ask, given what I've seen, why should I go to your tournament? I can get all the games I want online and, as I get better, my opponents will get better. I don't need the OTB experience to get better. My sense is that the established chess community doesn't recognize that and players just accept that this is how things are.