I totally agree! And so does the Cross Country Council.
However, life is:
(1) USATF's national sponsorships (which are supposed to be exclusive in their sponsorship categories) inhibit the local organizing committee's [LOC] ability to raise local funds (the most likely sponsors for the meet are either already national sponsors [and thus must be approached thru USATF's national office] or compete with them in the same sponsor categories);
(2) The national XC championships have not proved to be that attractive to big name sponsors -- while they may have the deepest fields of US distance runners each year, they are not high profile enough to be that interesting to major national sponsors and -- given the small field size, the fact that the meet moves almost yearly, and the fact that over 25% of the fields are from out of the locale where the championships are being held -- aren't that attractive to local sponsors the way that a big road race is.
(3) One requirement of bidding for the USA XC championships is for the LOC to guarantee a minimum of $5000 towards prize money (believe it or not, this requirement was only instituted a couple years ago). That's where the $5000 comes from.
(4) USATF has coughed up $10,000 the last two years ('01 & '02) for the winter championships and will most likely commit at least this much again for '03 (the '03 budget will not be finalized until the annual meeting in Dec in Kansas City); if this is the case, then we _could_ have a minimum of $15,000 for prize money.
(5) The XC Council is campaigning for more funds; however, we are just one of many constituencies within USATF and USATF's budget is very tight (_that_ is an entirely different topic, but not surprising given the current economic situation in the US).
(6) I, personally, would like to see the prize purse for the Open races at the Winter XC championship get up to at least $42,000 -- this would be equivalent the per event prize money ($4k, $3k, $2k, $1k, $500) offered at the '02 outdoor championships for four events:
http://www.usatf.org/events/2002/USAOutdoorChampionships/athleteInfo/awards.shtml
So -- don't think that the XC Council doesn't agree with you and isn't fighting for more. And don't blame Houston's LOC -- I know they are working hard on the sponsorship situation given the constraints imposed on them.
If you have any spare change lying around for the prize purse, please pass it along!
Mike
Vice Chair, USATF XC Council