You need to chat with the better players, especially those who win your tournaments on a frequent basis. Sit down with them separately and ask why they play at your hall, what they are getting out of the tournaments, and what improvements they'd like to see.
If their only positive is "you pay the biggest percentage of cash back" because of your current pay structure (zero for table rental in the case of our concerned room owner) you need to do serious thinking about improving your room in general. I'd be happy to help personally with some ideas and please review my related article on what exactly makes for a great pool tournament room.
Less skilled players are made happy in more general terms, by offering back a percentage of table rentals to the prize purse (a cash added tournament), and by disallowing tournament winners to compete for the top prize again (or play at all) in the one, two or three tournaments following, to give other players a chance to win.
8. Spice your regular pool tournament with action and you'll keep more table rental dollars.
Add flavor to your weekly tournaments by hosting challenges for cash or fun that have nothing to do with the tournament. For example, have everyone put in $1 per drawing ticket. The winning ticket holder, who must be present at the 8-Ball tournament that night, gets to break and run a table of 10-Ball.
Use a table somewhere prominent in your hall where people can watch the action sometime after the tournament starts. Of course, while they await the drawing each week they can rent a table to play if they were eliminated from the tournament or buy more food and beverages from you, room owner, as they sit!
Payout for the lucky player is 10% of the pot per ball sunk, including balls made on a legal break. Only rarely will someone break and run all ten balls, so money carries over to next week and the pot grows quickly.
For added excitement, allow players who win the drawing to elect to have a friend break for them, run balls for them, or even auction this possibility off from player to player.
With only 20 players weekly, the pot can quickly grow to $500 or $1,000 or more. Someone who has been to your tournaments for a while may certainly visit to try for the big pot soon during another week.
Your goal with a fun incentive like this one is to fill your place weekly with excited players, who must at some point pay money or have some of the tournament purse pay for some of your table rental time.
In any case, some clever but simple adjustments here, and now you have players in all week to practice Ten-Ball, too!
