I much rather have some JB bore paste or Brownells friction defense oil!
Other companies PAY to advertise, why can't the firearms industry? Do you think the people who attend a Golf match pay enough to award a million dollars to the winner?
How many people nationally golf or watch golf on TV. How many shoot USPSA or watch USPSA on TV. We can compare ourselve to Golf, or Football, or NASCAR, but the bottom line is USPSA doesn't have the market draw that mainstream sports do. So comparing their sponsorships to ours is about as relevant as saying the government pays for NASA so people can go into space so they should pay for USPSA because our shooting is out of this world.
On a side note, there are sports that have large cash contributions from sponsors. The biggest that comes to mind is the Bianchi Cup. They manage to get sponsors to donate large sums of cash to that match. But that is based on the NRA's backing, which has millions of members that will see that sponsorship, and history. Bianchi has always been cash sponsorship and that's what they stuck with. USPSA has not and it would require a change. Another AD suggested this year going to a cash sponsorship only as opposed to product for Nationals. I spoke to several friends in the industry that are major sponsors for USPSA. Not one said they would give USPSA cash instead of product. Several, all but one, said it would be the end of their sponsorship of the USPSA Nationals.
It's not a matter of whether you'd like a prize table or something else. It's whether you want a prize table or nothing. And the difference in match without a prize table would be minimal, if any at all. Maybe $10.00 a shooter? USPSA just doesn't buy that much for the Nationals prize table. It's almost all donated. The price difference would come from not having to rent the room for the prize distribution. As far as a cash payback, well we can do that, but the match fee is going up and the cash is going to come out of that. That literally would be a case of C and D class shooters subsidizing GM's. I'd fight tooth and nail against that.
3 Gun Nation!??! Is three gun somehow more TV friendly than uspsa? It can be done, if it is decided that the shooters deserve more. Cars driving around in a circle probably didn't excite too many people once upon a time!!
And you are assuming only uspsa members would watch on TV. Like thinking only football players watch football.