I live near Washington DC, so there are several possible airports I could use: BWI (in Baltimore, MD), Dulles Intl (in VA), Ronald Regan (just outside DC), and I could even potentially fly out of Richmond Airport. Allegiant Airlines does not service ANY of those airports. I just checked out roundtrip flights to Vegas and the cheapest I could find from any airports near me for a weekend was about $450 roundtrip
I think this decision is incredibly awful, because it seems that the east coast has been completely screwed. In 2004, the Fair was in Vegas (West Coast). In 2005 the Fair was in Minneapolis (Mid-West). In 2006 the Fair was in San Francisco (West Coast). In 2007 the fair was in Memphis (South). In 2008 it was held in Rhode Island, yes, it is on the east coast; the closest the Fair has come to me yet, but it was still 10 hour drive from me, and although I had saved up for it and was planning to go, unforeseen financial difficulties forced me to cancel my plans about a month ago.
If I had had any idea that the Fair would not be coming back to the East Coast (or, any further East than Vegas!) for the next FOUR YEARS, I would have just gone further into debt and made it out to this one, because honestly, there is absolutely NO CHANCE that I will EVER be able to afford a plane ticket to Vegas and hotel costs there as well as paying for food, a ticket to the fair, etc. That is just not going to be a reality for me. I was under the impression, when I made the decision not to go this year, that the Fair would continue to rotate, and that at some point in the next few years it might again be within a reasonable distance from me. I guess I was wrong, and now I truly believe that I will NEVER get to go.
ETA: Also, although this doesn't matter as much to me (because no matter where the pony fair was, the main reason I would go would be to go to the Fair and not for anything else), but I think Vegas is a horrid place. I was there two summers ago for about a week, and...I just didn't like ANYTHING about it. Everything was too jacked up in price, people were rude, gambling wasn't really fun to me, the shows were all too cheesy, it's just not my thing. I've seen a few people on here saying "oh Vegas is great, so it gives me more reason to go to the Fair since it will be in such a cool place," and for me that just isn't the case; I have absolutely NO desire to ever step foot in that town again.