I too would absolutely love to see two day States & Regionals. Look how much Nationals improved when extending it into a three day tournament. I hope it never goes back! I also hear a lot of comparing Pokemon to Magic. Every move Pokemon has taken in the footsteps of Magic has been successful: turn extensions after time, Best 2/3 play, legitimate World Championships, World Championship decks, creating different formats. None of these things existed when Pokemon first debuted and all of them existed in Magic first. Why stop there? Magic also has a three-day Worlds with different formats, it rewards whatever country performs the best at Worlds, it has a Hall of Fame for the best players. Some of these ideas could be implemented in Pokemon, too, at least in some form. Magic has some really cool stuff and it's had more years than Pokemon had to come up with these ideas. We should use this to our advantage.
Complaining about the costs of a venue hall for an extra day is a joke. Yeah, stuff costs money. C'est la vie. The price of these venues is dirt compared to what people spend in cards. Common sense should tell anyone that it keeps the game alive & fun, which ends up in a more profitable game in the end anyway. The bottom line is Two Day events aren't even a luxury at events like Regionals, they are now a necessity to have a fair & fun tournament. We had a whole thread about this and a clear majority of players wanted two-day Regionals. Hopefully enough PTOs are reading this and will actually listen to the players and take the initiative. This is where 8 pages of discussion & brainstorming, with hundreds of opinions, and thousands of people reading can turn into something productive. We see what the players want, and what the tournaments need. Now, it's up to the PTOs to actually do something.
As a PTO I will explain one bit of this for you and everyone else....the PTOs that run Regionals (not me btw) are given a set budget from TPCi OP. In that budget, the PTO has to pay for the venue, get staff, door prizes, etc. The cost of these venues is not cheap. Contrary to your belief. Go out and price the cost of a hall that holds 200-350 ppl for 1-2 days. Receptions are the biggest cost of a wedding (as a person that is married, I know, unless you buy a ginormous diamond engagement ring) SO, saying that you hope the PTOs reading this will follow the players' desires.....it isnt up to "us", it is up to TPCi's budget. If they would give the $$, others would do this. They tried it out with Tom Shea in the NE this past year for Reg's (2 days).....his numbers went DOWN. That speaks volumes to me. Not the handful of players here. I'm sure TPCi has talked with Tom about the pros/cons of a 2 day Reg after his was finished.
Keith