Andy,
i understand the theory about making the meet central....ish if it were to be planned for a one night stop over, but there is another angle to look at this from.
If the meet was planned around a weekend, i.e friday afternoon / evening through to Sunday afternoon / evening then this would make the journey worthwhile, you only need look at the areas we came from for the GWRA to understand my point on this one.
Obviously i would favour Bala due to my location but i also believe that there is a good pay 'n' play site at Kirton in Scunthorpe which i guess most people would travel for.
With regards to laning i agree that the prospective numbers may make this prohibitive whereas a pay 'n' play site would allow attendees the opportunity to play if they want or they could sit out for a few hours to chat, eat, drink, attend the inivitable frontera workshop, etc, etc, before resuming the playing with all the other members.
Personally i have been hoping that another meet was going to be in the offering because the GWRA really was a personal highlight of the last 12 months so all i say is bring it on,(so much so i might even consider investing in a mankini for the next event.)
Dan.