I tried to preach to the APA slack-jaws and troglodytes in my pool hall several years ago without any success. I had them convinced on all points except for the championships in Vegas.
I told them anyone can go and attend. They asked what's the catch, I told them you pay your own way, but it truly works out better that way. That's it....crowd dispersed and scoffed and mocked.
That is why the APA is huge and banks on these suckers. That free trip to Vegas is like crack-cocaine to them. They get hooked on that and there's no reasoning with them...That factor is huge. Same reason lotteries are so popular. Except if you actually win a lottery you are on the plus side, not in the APA.
In the roughly 22 years I've observed them....
I would say that of the teams that actually qualified to go to Vegas, the typical team took at least an average of 6 maybe 7 years of league play to make it. A tiny number of teams (1-2) were repeat qualifiers, due to a combination of having a squad of players with static skill levels but lots of experience in those SL's...example, 3's who never go up but know the game as well as an SL6; the other part of that combo is the skilled sandbaggers.
Most teams never made it, even after playing 15+ years in the league. Realistically speaking, how many teams can qualify out of multiple 16 team divisions each year? Not many. I saw one team finally win their chance to Vegas after a whopping 18 years in the league. There was tears of joy. How pathetic.
OK, that said ...let's do some math...
16 weeks in a session x 3 sessions a year x $8 a night + $25 or so per year x years played.
By my math...that's a little over $2,000 in 5 years per player. This is an estimate since summer session is shorter, and nightly fees can vary from $7 to $9 ....
Now...
In 5 years, that's 15 opportunities to land "in the money" 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. This will vary by team, situation....
I remember 1st place teams winning around $100 - $130 per player for 1st place. Awful. $75-$80 for 2nd, and around $50 each for 3rd place. Stingy league. But hey, the league operator makes this their living, and they are also putting money aside to pay for the team that does qualify to go to Vegas as well as kicking up the fees to corporate APA.
So deduct any of the winnings from the total above.
OK, now that we got that part done - time to put it all together.
This "FREE" trip to Vegas, for the few teams who do make it, who typically played for 5-7+ years to make it, cost them at least $2,000 or more. Some as much as $4000 - $5000 and never went in their team history. The team that took 18 years to make it that I described earlier, while their roster was not identical over the years, their core 4 players each put in around a close estimate of $7,000 each.
To play pool in Vegas does NOT cost $2,000 - $3,000 ...you can get a cheap flight, stay at an average hotel casino and eat reasonably decent and come in well under that amount.
Now....other leagues pay back more, so the costs incurred are less, since finishing in the money in these other leagues pay back much, much more than APA. Figure in the overall less cost paid in, plus the freedom to go and play in the Nationals --
A trip to Vegas for BCA is actually a lot more "free" than the APA. And you don't have to sit there and slug it out in some lame APA "cities" tournament. If you want to go, you GO!
So in the end...
Less cost.
Guaranteed trip to Vegas whenever you want to go.
All while playing in a less annoying environment.
To me, that sounds like MORE FUN and a better deal.
But hey, to each their own.