Quote Originally Posted by Fred McKim
I was approached by Mt Allison University in 1999 about the possibility of having the 2001 Canadian Open in Sackville, in the summer time, with the students gone home, not much more than a ghost town.

We ended up advertizing a $13000 prize fund (based on 160 players) and 3 Grandmasters that we (or at least those of my age group) thought would be attractions: Kevin Spraggett, Larry Christiansen, and the late Tony Miles.

We ended up with 169 participants, and if we subtract the local 15 from Moncton (less than 30 minutes away) we have 154 players, most of whom (minus the invited masters, and gas guzzling commuters) had to shell out for accomodations, travel, food, for the tournament package we put together. The residence rooms were reasonably priced (I can't remember if there were food packages or not), and I suspect the local food joints were all resonably priced.

So my question is, approximately how many people did we pull in from outside the Toronto area this year; or by using the same formulas, for other years. Is bigger, better ?

Obviously everyone likes bigger and better, but we can't continue on with good organizers having to lose money.
Fred, this post brings back some awesome memories! I was there that year with my youngest son, and with a niece as his baby-sitter in the evenings.

We had a fabulous time making day-trips, and then zipping back to Sackville for the evening round. My son and niece still remember that vacation week fondly! The best was eating lobster on the beach in the glorious sunshine!

Back to your point about local players vs. travelling players, I was just on the phone with a key chess guy in Canada, and I was expressing the sentiment that the last few events seem to be restricted more and more to just the actual evening rounds. Less and less people seem to get engaged the rest of the week, like during the daytimes. I remember sitting around the pool in Richmond, yes drinking beer, with players from duffers to famous GMs, or going jogging with players in Edmonton, golfing in North Bay (I know, not a CO, but I loved that event!) ... anyway, when I mentioned in a previous post about being more Canadian-centric, I guess I didn't just mean welcoming Canadian elite players more, but I am also thinking of adding more Canadian character, which I know sounds corny, but Sackville had that character(!), which is why it is still so memorable so many years later for me and my family.