If I"ve counted correctly in this thread then it would seem that three people have a problem with the earlier start, one person would prefer an early start but doesn"t mind, there"s a couple of people who are indifferent but eight people have expressed that they would prefer the earlier start and DTD would prefer the earlier start.
Surely leaving it a few more days to get more of a consensus among players before making the decision would be better?
I"m sure the majority of people would prefer the earlier start, as has been stated already - people should have allowed for a little bit of leeway in their travel plans anyway and most hotels will let you check in and keep your bags until you return later even if they don"t have a room ready for you. If people have to set off an hour or so earlier than they planned then they can get to bed an hour earlier the night before.
It will allow more levels to be played on each day and more time at DTD which can only be a good thing. I"m sure most people who aren"t from the nearby area have planned to spend the whole weekend at DTD anyway and if they have a serious problem with the 3pm start they can maybe swap their seat to the Saturday on the seat exchange board. I think at the very least, more time should be given to enable more people to speak up before a definitive answer is given. It looks like it"s only a vocal minority who have expressed a problem with an earlier start time. If more people speak out against it then fair enough but three or four people from the amount of people who are participating shouldn"t be a big enough margin to not change to a time that more people, including the venue, seem keen on.