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There is no right answer!
The rule of thumb given to me years back from the brain trust called Ancient Athletics (not sure if it was Merl Lawless, John Moore or Kevin Rogers or was it somebody else ...) is that 8 throwers per flight is ideal. I whole heartily agree with that rule of thumb.
I have noticed 10 is very doable, and 12 is getting crowded. Much more than 12 and the grumbling starts.
As an AD, you would like to keep the cost down for the hosting festival (less judges), but for me this rates on the bottom of the decision tree -- the throwers' happiness is much more important -- When you keep them happy, they entertain the crowd: a win - win.
How Many divisions? If you have 3 divisions, the answer is probably 3 judges.
If you have 4 divisions then what? two flights with 2 divisions? 3 Flights or even 4?
How many events?
Smaller number of events will allow more in a flight while still finishing in reasonable time (but the time between throws gets long, which sucks). If your running only 1 height event, you can pack a few more in a flight
If you have enough throwing pits including 2 uprights with two divisions per flight, you could split the height events up well the other flight is doing distance events. Can usually talk an experience thrower in one of the flights to judge the other height event.
How experienced are the judges? Experienced judges usually can push the flight along at a good pace. Less experienced judges ...
How far does most of your throwers travel? Besides registration fee, throwers incur travel expenses to get to an event. It could be well over $100.
For me, I try to keep the flights smaller as most throwers for the Quad Cities games travel distance. This gives them some fun time before they have to hit the road.
Is your event new? If you want a thrower friendly games and build loyalty for your event, treat the throwers well from the get go. Thus, smaller flights. (one oh-shit, wipes out 1000 at-a-boys)
Flexibility? If you get late registrations and/or lots of walk-ons, than maybe more judges so you can accommodate the late throwers.
Modifying the Height Events? In the last yr or two, several games around here have been taking 3 foot jumps in sheaf and 2 foot jumps in WOB until the numbers drop (separate the wheat from the chaff) in the early rounds (first 2 ? depends on talent in the flight). By doing this, the lesser throwers get marks and the best throwers rise to the top -- this speeds up the time killing events.
I hope that helps.
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Mark McVey
"The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions." -John Ruskin
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