the essence of what I am saying is not that there should be an advantage given to those who pay, just trying to come up with ways they might be willing to pay more. Hence the deluxe membership example, still a great idea I must say, you cant tell me there would not be little tourneys popping up everywhere.
But if you want more details, here goes,.
Limit this to one per season, either playing in or hosting, but not both. By this I mean you cannot host one tourney then play in another, that would lead everyone to just invite the same group of people over and over. limit size to 8 teams, make it a default single elimination format. These games would run as private games and I think they should be limited to the week of the finals. Make it a Monday, Wednesday Friday format. Oh and the fields cannot include anyone still in active competition.