Again, in all fairness...I don't think there was any way to satisfy everyone when something as unpredictable as the weather is involved. Had they canceled the tournament before it got started, they would have been seen as alarmist and unwilling to follow through; people who had planned their weekend around this tournament, reserved hotel rooms, canceled other plans, passed up other opportunities for competition, etc. would have likely been most unhappy about canceling a few days before the start time on a chance of rain, refund or no refund. We were supposed to be playing in a tournament in Jekyll Island next weekend, and I just got official notice yesterday that our bracket was canceled due to a shortage of teams. We have a refund coming, but there was a lot of preparation (not to mention difficulties in rescheduling rained-out games) involved in planning to attend. I'm not particularly happy about it, especially since they surely knew before this weekend whether enough teams had signed up to play.
So....if you cancel early, you get a bad reputation for being unreliable as a tournament host. If you try to follow through and the weather and the people who control the fields don't cooperate, you get a bad reputation for being unreliable as a tournament host. The only way to come out on top is if things that are under your control AND things that are beyond your control come together just right, and that is a gamble in any circumstance. I don't think there was any intentional attempt to mismanage the tournament. Perhaps some mistakes were made, but I don't think it's reasonable to say that it's all a plot to defraud and disappoint. It's a bad situation we all got caught up in, and we might as well deal with it and move on.
