USA: Regional Contest Entry w/ Drop Outs

The Region 3 Contest was just canceled in Dansville when 5 people
within the last week of the contest withdrew. Doesn't sound like a big
deal but when you only have 20 pilots signed up, its a huge deal.

Now reading Charlie “Lite” Minner 's Region 9N report, they had 20
pilots bail out of the contest within the last week or simply didn't
show up. They were planning for 50 pilots and only now have 30 pilots.
This is a huge impact on the contest staff and simply is not fair to
the efforts that the have put into planning the event.

What do you think is going on? Is this an economic problem or an aging
soaring population?
How do we prevent these issues from causing future organizers from
saying "forget it" to hosting a contest?
Thoughts?

Tim Hanke "H"
Region 3 Contest Registration