I think probably the best thing to do is realize everybody deals with
this when they run a tournament. When we hosted our MLK (sic)
tournament earlier this year we had, up until the thursday before,
anywhere between 9 and 15 teams coming, and we made schedules for I
think pretty much all of them. I didn't know which schedule I'd be
printing until the day before the tournament.
This kind of stuff happens, and unless a team just decides not to show
up at all the day of the tournament, it's something you just need to
deal with. That's why I will not print tournament schedules until the
day before the tournament, and I always have extra moderators
available on site.
If you really wanted to make sure you got your money, you could
require a security deposit that wouldn't be refunded if the team pulls
out after X number of days before the tournament, but your tournament
attendance would probably drop as a result.
Speaking purely from my own perspective on things,
Stephen