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.