Well if you want a specific example, the tournament I'm advertising in my sig is going to be held in a community center.
When making enquiries, the trick is to try and justify a discount. Claim that you have a large amount of people coming (Something realistic) and ask if you can get a discount for hiring for the maximum amount of hours available per day of the event.
The community centre I'm using has two main halls. The North Hall and the South Hall.
The North Hall is smaller, and would accomodate roughly 50 people (Although it would be a squeeze). For the maximum amount of hours I could have it for, it was going to cost me around $300. That's discounted for having hired with them before (Established track record), and for hiring for the whole day.
However, a month out from the tourney, I've concluded that the current venue is far too small to accomodate everyone.
So I changed the booking to the South Hall. Which claims to seat twice the amount of people, and has 3 phase power avaliable for use. This booking is to cost me $500 (Discounted by $100), and is better suited to hosting the tournament.
You need to look around at your options.
Uni's, Schools, community halls.
Look at the floor plans, the space available. You need a reasonable idea of how many stations you're going to set up, and how many people are going to be there, and you want space. You don't want people to be cramped up.
Some venues may well be free, others may not. I've seen situations where people have been able to take advantage of university facilities for free.
