Hawaii a no-show at several Nationals - Are Nationals in Florida/Alabama unfair?

I just reviewed the flights for 2017 USTA League Nationals and five of them do not have the full complement of 17 teams.  A few go as low as 15 teams, which results in three flights of five teams and a wildcard making the semis, but there are also a couple with 16 teams.

A common theme with each of these championships is that Hawaii is the, or one of the missing teams.

Now, this could be just because they don't happen to have teams playing at that division/age/level/gender.  For example, there are typically very few 2.5 teams in most areas, and in one as small as Hawaii one can envision they may not even have teams play.  The same may happen at the 4.5+ or 5.0+ levels too.

But, is the move of most of the Nationals to Alabama and Florida perhaps also a reason?

In past years with Nationals in California and Arizona, Hawaiians were faced with a 5-6 hour flight to get there, and only that "quick" if they could get a non-stop to Palm Springs, Phoenix, or Tucson which probably wasn't likely.  So they already had the toughest trek just to get there, about the same as a flight from the New England section.

To get to Florida from Hawaii is an 11+ hour trip, and that is with the shortest connection one can find, most itineraries end up being about 13 hours.  They could fly to Australia in less time!  Is it really fair to ask someone to make that trip "just" to play three (perhaps more) tennis matches?

So lets take a look at the championships they aren't showing up to and see where they are and if Hawaii had teams.

• 18+ 2.5 women in Mobile - Two teams played so could have gone, but Alabama is a long trip.
• 18+ 3.0 men in Arizona - Two teams, "normal" trip to Arizona but appear to be deferring.
• 18+ 4.5 women in Orlando - Seven teams, plenty to choose from, but none electing to make the trip.
• 18+ 4.5 men in Orlando - Two teams, could have gone, but Orlando trip a long one.
• 40+ 3.0 men in Ft. Lauderdale - Three teams, Florida is a long trip.

In each case, there were teams in local leagues so I believe they could have sent a team.  But in four of the five, and that just thus far, the trip was a pretty onerous one and I'm figuring that played into deciding to not go.

By comparison, last year Hawaii sent teams at 3.0-4.5 levels in both 18+ and 40+ men and women, so the missing 2.5 team is unchanged from last year, but the other four are all missing this year where they weren't last year.

Note that one could argue that for years, parts of the Continental United States have had a 5-6 hour trip to Nationals, and there are many more players in those areas so it is only fair for them to get a shorter trip now.  But it doesn't really matter how many players play in local leagues, only one team goes to Nationals so the move to Florida/Alabama would seem to be awfully unfair to Hawaii and likely is the reason they won't be at some of the championships this year.

I wrote about potential impacts of the location change for Nationals awhile back, and hypothesized the travel change would be a factor.  Hawaii was not a perennial top team in the past, but has made the semis eight times and won a title twice in the past four years, so it seems pretty clear they performance will be affected because some teams aren't even making the trip.