Seemed a little bit of an energy sapping let down. Hope I'm wrong.
I obviously wasn't there the last few years, but the energy has been sapping out of it, obviously, for about 10 years now. Since it has been held in Muncie, the attendance from remote areas (like, more than a days drive or so) has fallen off dramatically, and almost no one goes who isn't directly involved. So few spectators. The experiment with Expert also had a negative effect - instead of drawing more entrants, it split the existing advanced field. Then, when it was dropped, those people didn't show back up or enter open, they just didn't go.
As you know as well as anyone, with it permanently 2500 miles from the biggest area of participation, any no practical way to get there aside from driving, it's a grind. Now, you get mostly midwest/east coast local competitors, and the guys going for the top places, and not a lot of the guys in the middle going for experience.
This is just my opinion, of course, but going to Muncie every year for 20+ years, it has lost a lot of the appeal as a special event. You still get the best fliers showing up, for the most part, it's still a the best contest, but it's not a "happening" the way it used to be. You get more turnout and spectators, and "hangers on" at the NWR or the Golden State meet, than the NATs
I know you were trying to make a point, but of late, as far as I can tell, no one considered the banquet a draw, and just like the event itself, it was getting very ordinary and there's not a lot you can do about it. How many times can you go to the Muncie convention center and have it be special? What you saw on Saturday was not a lot different from what it was on Thursday (at least at the recent NATs I have attended). It has the feel of a Team Trials much more than the old NATs.
Brett