Fencer, you need to spend some time at this end trying to get people registered to begin with. That in itself is hard, now after that, we can't force them to show. That's up to the CO to attract and keep his people.
Every scenario, including the ones I attended before becoming a CM were a nightmare and nail biter to get people to commit to the event in advance.
There is also a line that must be drawn so the COs can work with a Known Quantity. They have to plan as well. So they will agree to lock the registration down so they can begin, and then have a contingency plan in place for the walkons.
As you show in your numbers, people did register. Now, I'm not clear on After they registered, how the CMs might force them to show up. If you have a suggestion, you know I'll listen, but frankly your own numbers show that it's really not our problem. What good, exactly, would it do to have allowed a larger registration? Do you know the timetable to get Those slots filled to begin with? Last Minute is when we got to those registered numbers. If in the last few days we reached 126/96 what good would it have done to have 250/200 slots opened? What would you have done if we opened the door with 250/200 and 200 went allied and 76 went Axis? Forced people to change? We'd be Exactly were we were now, attendance wise, except we'd have a good number of people ticked that they were forced to move.
It isn't quite as nice and tidy as one might think, it's not simple. How about we try this, keep the registration as it is and perhaps the COs might RETAIN through communication a tad better. Other than that, I don't see one thing that suggests simply upping the reg numbers would have done squat to change the attendance.