Sometimes teams have other things scheduled that conflict with local events, having this tournament on WNBL Grand Final weekend would have made the event very difficult if Adelaide had a win against Canberra or if the 6ers had a win last weekend.
Realistically however teams were told that there would be games against ALL other sides in the tournament (9 shortened games plus finals) over the 3 days and now they are looking at 4 (maybe 5) shortened games over 2 days. (Imagine the drive for Southern players for less than an hour of basketball per day)
This idea of a preseason tournament is great but it should have some modifications to make it more club friendly, and making it a mandatory tournament is only part of the answer. As a player I would prefer three games at full time over five games at 24 minutes. Also clubs that have juniors playing now have to justify why they can or cannot pull a junior out of the district competition for this event. My suggestion would be make it mandatory, make the first round of the tournament the first round of the ABL season with the subsequant rounds exhibition tournament games, have fully timed games, cancel a week of juniors to promote spectators, and supply a decent central location (Wayville) and start the ABL Season with a real Bang!!