Why do runners happily throw money at every 10k that rolls through town without the slightest chance of making money back?
Because rich white people run; it is something you can do before your day as a pediatrician starts by yourself without any facilities. Slovenly bums play disc golf. Slovenly bums that play in organized events for the social aspect even though the only social aspect is accusing people of sandbagging and griping about the TD.
Oh god. you say that but...
the F1 engineer on £60k plus a year won't play in my PDGA sanctioned league for £3 a week, because he can normally play for free, or play a monthly handicap at the same course (non PDGA) for £1.
People complain as they have no idea of the costs and organisation that goes into running the simplest things, doesn't matter how much money they earn. The people that complain tend to be the people that have never been involved in any aspect of the organisation.
My wife is running a half marathon this month, paying £35 for entry and "just" getting a T shirt and medal - her and all her friends (mostly professionals, Teachers, doctors IT geeks) are complaining loudly about the cost - the cost of an event which they will have to secure, police and do all the other stupidly expensive things that allow 10000 people to run through the roads of the second largest city in the country, complaining is not unique to a certain socio economic group, it comes from a lack of understanding or thought from the complainers.
As for opt outs on player packs - it makes it more risk and more expense for the TD. You have to book your player packs well in advance, if half the field say they want cheap entry you risk sitting on Hundreds of pounds of merchandise you have to shift at lower costs through the year and probably will still have some in 5 years time. It's not something I would want to do, either all or nothing, I err to preferring no player packs TBH a cheaper tournament and the thing you are paying for is the competition plus trophies, it's generally the way I run my tournaments.
Of course there are still complaints. I booked out a nine hole loop earlier this year of an incredible golf course for Disc Golf for a one day event, creating temporarily one of the best courses in the country (it cost me a huge amount of money to design, prep and organise in the run up but the hope is that it should become permanent so hopefully worth it! (still ongoing negotiations), superb venue for food and drinks before and during the round and the best place most of the disc golfers in this country had ever had to play. I charged a whopping £17 for it ($22- ish), trophy and prizes only, PDGA sanctioned and having to cover insurance + overall tour trophies/prizes and expenses and got accused quite vehemently of profiteering (normal Bolf green fees to play this loop would be £15 for about 2.5 hours of play, we booked it out for the whole day and had a field of 40) you'll lose whatever you do!
