What state are you in? How much are you nightly league fees per player? I think we are all paying different amounts. I was wondering what the discrepancy actually is.
The discrepancy is different pool hall greens fees.
Fees? The bar pays those.
$40 or $8/player
$6 a night per player plus coin op table cost. South Dakota APA 8 ball
Each League Operator of each area can charge whatever they want, and allocate different amounts of those fees to the different areas however they want (trophies, patches, travel funds, tournaments/events, etc, etc).
This is not a "discrepancy", each area is a franchise owned by a different LO, and like any other franchised business they can run it however they want as long as they follow the general guidelines of the organization HQ (in this case, the St. Louis HQ of the APA).
Don't get caught up in fees, if you choose to play then you've chosen to pay whatever fee they're charging. Same thing as when you buy a gym membership, or anything else...you've agreed to pay the fees the business owner charges you, that's your choice. You don't go to the owner of the gym and ask him to change his pricing model and run his business differently because you don't like it, do you?
You sound like a league operator defending yourself. People have choices what gym they want to join. If you live in a certain area there are no choices what APA league operator to play under. Most franchised businesses McDonalds/Duncan Donuts or any other are usually within 10% of each others charges/fees. It seems in the APA it can be up to 100% different from one league operator to the next. I'm not getting caught up in it. I was just curious to see what teams/players pay in different areas of the country. Apparently in some area of the country they pay $25 per team. In my cousin's area of New York they pay $55 for league fees per team. It has nothing to do with green fees because that's an additional payment.
I'm a former league operator but I don't have any affiliation with the APA at all right now. I'm just telling you how it works, I don't care either way.
The bottom line is that there are tons of factors that go into that fee that make it vary from area to area, and it's a private, for-profit business so they don't have to tell you what all the factors are and frankly it's none of your business. You either choose to play in the league or you don't, it's an optional recreational activity. I don't speak for the APA, that's just my 2 cents.