In my local scene we host underdog tourneys 2-4 times a year. The rules are players that have finished top 3 in locals multiple times or placed top 8 in a major or finished 1st in a underdog tourney are banned from entering.
Its helped boost overall attendance for marvel 3 but AE players are a bit fraud and only enter underdog tourneys and ignore the regular ones lol.
For games with solid net code, maybe invite people to online sessions first, I don’t know…
You must find more people who care about having a local scene as much as you do. This task is too much for one guy to tackle alone.
I’m not gonna pretend like this problem isn’t huge and valid to everywhere, because even my own local scene is kinda in the crapper ATM, but I keep myself in shape with regular play and improving myself in the meanwhile.
As long as you and the other few motivated people keep playing and improving among yourselves, at least you do SOMETHING.
I think it’s worth finding out what games your local players are interested in. it’s not necessarily what’s big in the general community. some people are less likely to show up if SF4 and Marvel are what’s on the tray for the night.