The St. Louis scene has a tendency to implode on itself every six or seven years. It's doing it right now. Long story, but there is a large undeveloped piece of property by the airport in Bridgeton that they were moving forward with as a 27-hole disc golf course. They were so far into the process that they had played fundraising events on the proposed course. Come to find out a second course design was taken to the City of Bridgeton behind the Clubs back by the Club President and local course designer, which started a flurry of finger pointing and name calling. All of that got the Club thrown out by the City, so the whole project is in jeopardy. People are getting mad, yelling and cursing at each other, quitting the Club...all of those fun things that happen when a Club melts down.
All of that infighting and drama seems to have distracted them from promoting the Open. No promotion=no attention. There were still a lot of shirts left to give the full players pack to Ams after the Am registration deadline, but that word never seemed to get out.
Having said that, I've been to events where the local club was fighting and the events were fine. So long as the TD can pull a few people together, they can pull off the tournament and somebody from out of town wouldn't even know about the dirty laundry unless they get stuck on a card with a local who complains about it all round long.
