How many tables (half, single, double, corner) have been sold this year? How many last year and each year prior over time?
What's the total dealer revenue brought into the club each year (by year)?
Has the price of tables gone up/down over the years?
How much ad revenue (in the program and the magazine) is brought in by dealers?
If we could get stats like the ones above, I think we'd have a proper picture of whether dealers feel the show is a good value (and will return each year) or a bad value (and decline to return).

I'm a 2nd time dealer this year. Last year, I had a wonderful time sharing a single table with Keith Elliott. I was very disorganized (in my opinion) and I had way more chips to sell than I could properly display. So, this year I'm getting a double table (corner, actually), be more organized, have more of my chips properly displayed, etc. So, I'm one of those people that is returning and effectively tripling my investment in the club and quadrupaling my space. I'm also spending $100 to advertise in the program and another $100 to advertise in the upcoming magazine. Didn't do any advertising at all last year.

If Walt is correct, it sounds like I'm going to get more foot traffic if other dealers are dropping like flies. If that's the case, I'll be quite happy to get the additional attention, so I feel that's good for me.

Let's continue:
How many attendees have we had at each show (I know COVID will affect the numbers for the past couple of years)?
How many are CCA members? How many spouses, kids, parents, friends of members?
How many non-CCA members (if that's tracked)?
How many pre-registrations? How many walk-ins?
What is the daily attendance in the show floor (by day and by year)?
Is there a (cheap) way to use RFID tags in badges to track people entering and leaving the show floor? If so, we could see how many people are on the floor at any given time, which would help dealers plan for help/staff and for taking breaks to look at other dealers' tables, etc.
These numbers can offer dealers (and those considering becoming dealers) a glimpse of how many potential customers they have at any given show.

Continuing on...
How many attendees ONLY go to trade sessions and do not visit the show floor?
How many attendees ONLY go to the show floor and don't attend the trading sessions?
How many attendees go to BOTH every year?
How many attendees make at least one trade at the show?
How many attendees make at least one purchase from a dealer at the show?
For those who purchased chips, what was their total spend?
For those who traded, what was the estimated value of the chips that were traded? Per trade? In aggregate?

I don't personally find the trade sessions to be valuable myself, but that's only because I'm down to looking for one chip from each of 96 Nevada casinos. Not likely to find that in a trade session, and even if I did, it's not likely I would have something to trade back, so it becomes a cash transaction, and that either takes place away from the venue (which doesn't affect the dealer unless they also have the same chip I'm looking for, in which case I absolutely want to see theirs as well so I can choose), or it happens IN the venue (because they're likely to be a dealer). I'm not saying the trade sessions aren't worthwhile. I'm saying they have little or no value to ME due to my very specific target collection. I have gone, and will continue to go, to trading session because because it's wonderful to look through the binders of chips and see people swapping chips with each other. I do the same thing at the dealers tables (time permitting).

Dealer complaints about trading sessions is conjecture. Intelligent conjecture to be sure, especially for those who have been around for many years. But without some actual stats to look at, it's difficult at best to know how dealers are impacted, positively or negatively.

Those who are planning and running the show can maybe try to figure out how to gather the stats I outlined above. It's a big task, and maybe not one that can get done this year. But some past stats should be available and those could be analyzed.