Should the next $100K LAN tournament halve the prize pool to double the participants?

[archxeon]

The recent decrease in prize pool for NAC without too much fuss from the players and the broader community has me thinking that even if the sponsorship had been acquired, would it have been better to increase the number of participants by decreasing the prize pool? Considering NAC4 is happening in a larger place, surely a few more participants could be accommodated. And with $50k you could have at least 10 more participants? I can think of arguments for and against. For example, $100k sounds a lot different than $50k to casual viewers. And those viewership is what the tournament organizer might be trying to attract. On the other side, having a larger number of players allows the competitive scene to grow and keeps tournaments fresh. Some fan favorites may not miss out. But again there will always be people missing out. Thoughts?

 

[Progeusz]

That's not how it works.
Prize pool is a small portion of total costs of the event. It's the external costs which forced Nili to lower the prize pool, to cover at least part of those costs. He will still be in the red, but not devastatingly so anymore. Covering people's flights, accommodation for multiple days, food coverage, more "battle stations" for concurrent matches played and staff, those are the real killers and they increase somewhat linearly with every new person you add.

 

[archxeon]

That's not how it works.
Prize pool is a small portion of total costs of the event. It's the external costs which forced Nili to lower the prize pool, to cover at least part of those costs. He will still be in the red, but not devastatingly so anymore. Covering people's flights, accommodation for multiple days, food coverage, more "battle stations" for concurrent matches played and staff, those are the real killers and they increase somewhat linearly with every new person you add.

I understand in NAC4's case the sponsorships didn't pan out so he had to use the prize money to fund other expenses. Either way, this is not about NAC4 per se, just in general, if its better to invite more players by lowering the prize pool? I thought an average of 5k per person would be a enough for food/accommodation/flights but maybe thats not enough. Thought a lot of the expenses was production.