True, but this particular series (two tourneys a year) is ran by a non-profit organization with limited resources. A good question is why there is no full-time TTC there. The answer I got was that at some point there was one full-time club, but it lacked players because it was cheaper to play in "free" clubs that were ran by volunteers at local churches/schools/community centers.
Yup. Sacramento market is exactly like this. For years, all the tt action centered on going to a different school gym in the metro area each day for 2 hrs or so of league play.
There are two full time clubs that popped up in the last 2 yrs here in Sacramento... and both have struggled with the dynamic of the market behavior.
Simply put, people in the market are not very inclined to pay $50 to $60 a month to play in the same club every day. it could be that many feel it is boring, or don't care about a club culture, or the market likes to bar hop daily for leagues... Market is tough here locally. Different in Bay Area, more foreigners and a few Americans inclined to get their kids or self to train at a club.
I don't get it myself, as the people in the market pay $5 to $8 a day to play like this 4-5 times a week... Over a month, that is a lot of TT fees ($80 $120) and fuel cost ($50-$250). The costs for playing at same club every day is easily half to 1/4 of this, but everyone likes to move around.
On Friday, there is a Russian Church that has TT from 7 to 7:30, a break for the Word and Pizza, then around 8:15 TT again for 2-3 hrs. There are a number of people who show up at 8 for the free TT action.
That is the local behavior here... It is darned difficult to get enough players to show up daily to make a club work out. Rent isn't cheep.