I just talked this over out loud, and maybe it works.
If the goal of the club (in having any kind of cyclocross races at all) is to get people around (in town) here to race cyclocross and/or ride bicycles more, it stand to reason that we should focus on the people around here. What I mean is that we don't have to compete with other races if we don't schedule them on the weekend. Sure, we may have fewer people turn out every night that we do it, but at least they'll be learning the skills and seeing what it feels like--which makes it easier to get them interested in going to a "real" race on the weekend, somewhere else (I think Manitoba is the way to go, honestly).
How does that sound? A Wednesday night 'cross series here in town, run on a course that isn't hard to set up or take down (think a million times less tape than last year) to drum up some interest. Obviously there's interest, so let's do something at least.