It didn"t feel that players were taking longer than expected on my table last night.
Just an observation though:
Last week the structure was 5k chips/15 min blinds. A few people complained but most were happy. APAT decided to discuss with the team captains. Understandable, but it is unofficially expected that the team captains rail to the end from what I read. Ergo, these people are slightly biased to the shorter clock, hence the change.
This week the clock was 4k/12m. Lots of people complained and a few are happy, most notably from the European team, team captains and a few who have an early start. Numbers also dropped by approximately 10-15%.
APAT are never going to be able to please everybody - but I have an idea.
Week 1 was 5k/15m
Week 2 was 4k/12m
Week 3 could be 5k/12m
Week 4 could be 4k/15m
Week 5 could be 3k/10m with the other structure proposed (this is assuming that 1. people are still complaining, and 2. APAT are still looking to make everyone happy)
Announce this now so people like Brian Yates (no offence against you personally Brian, but it"s your major point) know exactly what the structure is and what week is what.
Then, after Week 5, put a poll up for EVERYBODY. Not just captains, not just a select few, EVERYBODY. Spam it on the email"s/PM"s and get as many people in as possible to vote. 1 vote per forum account. Results not to be seen until the day before.
The winning structure is the one used for the remaining 10 weeks.