Clovis - This contest was suspended for 2010 by the organizers, Brent & Kim Walton, in order to find a date in which they could partner their contest with another event so as to share infrastructure costs, etc. Brent and I have discussed the recent disparity between prize funds and collected entry fees and he feels, as do I, that the majority, if not 100%, of collected entry fees should be returned to the teams via the prize fund. It was their decision to suspend the event rather than use entry fees to pay for overhead.
Alpine - This contest was, unfortunately, a victim of its own success. This event was organized and sponsored by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians and was held at their venue, a casino and large outlet shopping mall. In the 5 year history of their event, the tribe steadily increased the contest prize fund making it the highest paying single competition held annually in California. The contest drew record crowds in 2009 and the People's Choice aspect of the event raised significant dollars for the tribal charity. Those record crowds, however, did not ultimately translate into increased sales for the outlets and action for the casino so the decision was made to cancel the event.
Lakeport - Another tribal casino event, Lakeport, reduced the contest prize fund, in spite of success of the 2009 event, from $9,500 in 2009 to $7,600 in 2010 even though the team count at the contest doubled from 18 in 2009 to 36 in 2010.
A significant difference from your previous comment above that "most of these are fundraisers for charities". I'm quite certain that it is the goal of every contest to raise money for something, even if that "something" is simply profit for the investors. It is something else again, when teams end up being the majority source of those funds raised. I would like to point out that the organizers of the Bakersfield contest, one of the two listed events that was actually a charity event, were at least thoughtful enough to issue receipts to the teams so that their entry fees could be listed as a donation to the charity.
In the words of a man much wiser than me, "there isn't an opportunity to raise any money without the barbeque teams being there in the first place".
