i hear ya -- i once served on the board of our local assn, and it gave me another way to look at this. the overall ideal is to increase participation/memberships, so on the one hand you want to be inclusive of those few outlier towns who have a decent sized playing community, and want to be included in the district, but then people in the population center who have no interest/reason to drive to the outlier to play (at least in their own minds). you're also trying to blend those who want to play for fun/exercise, and those who really want to try to make a serious run, so there has to be a little flexibility to accommodate both types of participant.
when we started consistently communicating that these are *travel* leagues, and set the expectation *up front* there is a possibility of a 1hr+ drive on a weeknight 1-2 times per session, the team I cap all took it in stride. some folks can, some can't, just build a bigger roster and make it a fun road trip. i personally have not experienced any attrition from the three teams I cap as a result. as an aside, my anecdotal observation is these outlier teams tend to be generally strong, perhaps because the few in those communities who really do want to play, understand they will need to drive to do it...so, with my captain hat on, i use that as a motivator to the folks in the population centers: you want to be the best in your district? then go beat 'em and prove it! we need both types in leagues, and the more competitive players like the challenge and chance to advance so they don't care.
these are the same people who have kids in travel soccer/AAU basketball etc and think nothing of driving all over for that, or to go to a sporting event or rock concert on a work night and get home at midnight. once we put it in those terms, people seemed to just buy-in. Some still grumble bc no one likes to play away, but the reality is we're talking about one night *maybe* every 4-6 months...
