<<Not just entrance fees, but travel and
hotel expenses, food, lost wages, etc. The "few hundred
bucks" isn't just the registration fee, it's the overall
opportunity cost of attendance.>>
To be fair to
ACF (as well as NAQT, Penn Bowl, and almost any other
multiday tournament except Chip Beall), anytime you
involve both transportation costs and hotel rooms, it is
almost a given that [travel costs] >>
[registration fees]. So even if a tournament charged nothing at
all, it wouldn't make a huge dent in the total cost of
attending the tournament you cite.
--STI