For weekend torneys that play 1A, 1B and Day 2: 5/6PM start Fridays. 2PM Saturday. The bigger market is part time players, majority of which have a job. 5/6PM start gives time for people to commute down when they finish at 5. People who are tied up and cant make Saturday due to family commitments/other plans etc. can still play. Yes there is late reg. but alot of people hate turning up 5 levels late and enjoy the first few spewy levels! 2PM on Saturday so people who drive down can bag up, and have enough time to get a decent sleep without havin to cover costs of a hotel just for Day 2.
You do realise that a lot of us drive a lot longer than an hour to get to DTD?
Yes, definately. What I mean is 5-6PM would be balanced.
Insted of starting at 2PM, where alot of people who head down after 5PM/work (with a 1 hour or even a 3 hour drive) arrive with a 30 big blind stack. It's meant to be a deepstack. And also, people are put off by not being there at the start.
Why not start at 8PM where a mass majority can play? Cus you have people getting home at 7AM, loads of dealers and staff costs to bear in mind who will be there till closing. No cash games after bagging up etc. It just wouldn't work to swing it all it either direction.
My point is, 5PM-6PM start gives on average, people time to head down to reach the start of the torney, or for longer commuters (including myself who sometimes have to drive 3 hours) time to register with a decent playable stack.