this is probably
THE most absurd suggestion in the history of the game... but what the Hell...
I was explaining to a good buddy of mine what has been going on in the HTC community lately. He has been following with interest my "flight siim" career for a while now, and would LOVE to play this game we have so much fun at, but his wife will NEVER let him pay to play an online game EVER>...
point being we were talking about HO's and newbies, and all that jazz... and he said
Why don;t they make an Only Veterans Arena
I have been around the community for over 5 years now (AGAIN for those who don't know I
was JB73 in the past... anyway, I have never seen or heard of something like this brought up before.
Immediately I said "how do you be a veteran?" he said "points" we talked and he saw how points don;t work. he said "hours logged online" I explained how there are 15 year Vets who sometimes only log 10 hours in a month.
the ONLY thing we could come up with is HTC record data.
now this is not something they will ever give out, but they must have a database of old names registered, in fact I know they do. when I recently re-joined I had to prove I was the old "Mustaine" to get my name back.
some of us "Vets" go back 5 years. many 10 - 15 years.
here's the absolute CRAZY part.... what about an arena where only people playing AH for more than 3+ (or 4) years can go in?
it is the old vets that want and enjoy the "furball" arena anyway...
in a weird way it may entice a player to stay a subscriber longer.
say for example a requirement for access to the arena is 20 tours with logged time in, under various CIPD's as long as it is proven you are the same person.
in said arena, some of the "normal" MA map rules could be a bit different. bases a bit closer, strat much higher to attack, country change limit to 0 like the DA, possibly bombers disabled.... so on and so forth.
Like I said right off this has got to be the most ABSURD suggestion, but it is something I have never seen even talked about, so let's talk about it
one last thing... I KNOW this could be a logistical nightmare for HTC... sorry, but thats the way it is. there is NO automatic inclusion to said arena, you must call them directly long distance, paying your own way, and PROVE you are someone who has been around that long of a time. I'd hope it wouldn't be more than a matter of keystrokes for Carrie or whomever happens to answer to see who you really are, say a CC validation, heck maybe a 1 time processing fee of $20 to offset the difficulties.
If you decide you must "change your name" $5 to keep access to the veterans arena.
I don;t think for a second the old hands would hesitate for a second to pay that extra sum for the good old furballs 
sorry LAST EDIT, the last trick is this arena could never have a CAP to hold paying vet's out.
LAST one I swear... we all know there are a ton of vets on ALL the time... and if there's worry about "all" the vets leaving the newbie flock untrained think of this, yes there will be some who go in there with only 10 players or whatever, but the majority I think will hold off until there is a larger number in there.
also there are a lot of vets ingrained into the game who enjoy helping new players out (I know I have done my share trust me) so I don't think this would be a "mass exodus" of all vets from the current main arenas, but a gradual increase of the "furrballers" in there over time... both in the long run, and over the course of a day (as far as arena numbers go)