Tournament features

John Winkelman (previously featured in this blog here), returned from a recent trip to the United States bearing gifts. They were a number of tournament brochures from various large US chess opens, which he thought might be of interest to me. They of course were, not because I planned to enter any of them, but as an insight into how events in the US are structured.
While a lot of the entry fees, conditions and prizes are similar to Australia, there were a few things that caught my eye. In no particular order they were

• Free entries for GM's and IM's have an equivalent amount deducted from any prizes won.
• Tournaments are in sections, but there are a lot more sections (I assume a lot more players as well
• Entry in the top section often costs more for lower rated players
• The longer the event the more half point byes you can take (up to 4 in 9 round events!)
• Players bring their own boards and clocks (none supplied by organisers)
• 2 and 3 day schedules for weekend events (1-2-2 or 3-2 rounds)
• Online ratings used for unrated players

The tournament information was generally printed on thick card (rather than the fancier brochures we use in Australia) which to me seems easier to distribute.
Some of the ideas might be useful in Australia (eg the use of online ratings to seed unrateds), but I can't see the whole "bring your own set" idea catching on.