Outsourcing ship creation to community? Together with custom SKINs? 
I am sure people would pick up that part. Question is if CCP would ever allow something like that. In all those years, people, myself included, designed a lot of EVE themed assets. Pictures, models, textures, designs. CCP was not able to design a system to capitalize on this kind of creative player enthusiasm in 15 years.
IIRC the AT had more viewers than fanfest. I am not sure wether CCP measures the influence AT has on new subscriptions. It certainly has a positive influence on keeping players around, since it offers a longterm goal for pilots and groups or at least something seemingly unreachable which motivates them to get better and better.
The unique ships are only a part of that fascination, but none the less important. You know the pilots will give 150%, they will sweat blood and go all in, because they have so much to win and so much to lose. Without having those ships as prices a lot of the pressure and awe will vanish.
If CCP is worried about AT ships being used in AT matches as a force multiplier, effectively creating an ISK barrier for poorer teams, they could adapt the rules and either outright ban them from usage or limit the times a team can bring their AT ship.
AT XV they did exactly that. Teams were limited to only one AT prize ship per match.
tbh, if there is not a commensurate prize pool, I doubt anyone will ever risk an AT prize ship again.
Itās been a year of slash and burn, and with the decimation of their community team we really shouldnāt be surprised.
The AT is NOT about the prize ships. It never has been. Yes they were cool but the time taken from the dev team (and to a lesser extent the art team) to provide a ship that less than 0.001% of Eve will ever see, most of which never get undocked? Iād rather that time got spent on almost anything.
The winners can get PLEX and nice skins, which take a hell of a lot less resource to create and distribute.
Letās see the AT for what it is - A brilliant get together of some of the best eve pilots and theorycrafters with some nice prizes on offer. Just because the prize changes format, it shouldnāt be a cause for upset.
On the bright side, the AT shipsā prices will rise so more isk for the owners 
That is for sure very reasonable argumantation. CCP however have broken the tradition of giving out custom OP ships, and it was also a thing that inspired teams. They could give out other rewards anyway, as you suggested, but it would not be the same I think, custom ships have this aura of unobtanium around them, that makes them like Faberge eggs in EVE.
What other rewards could they give to not use dev time, but would still give a real boost to interest from players? Would giving some money or graphic cards solve everything?
I think the previous ship rewards would not be reused by CCP (someone was sugesting on reusing them on Reddit I think). Assets had customized AT numbers logos on them.
You are damn right mate. I am gorillionaire now.
For some people, it is very much about the prizes.
Sooo, no AT ships this time? Is it for real? Why even bother competing then?
Without the High stakes high rewards which the AT ships offers, its really not as interestingā¦ you might as well just do the Eve_NT
why bother competing then?
Really!? Why not ask the 80+ teams that apply for feeder rounds and practice their asses off. Maybe if you are Hydra, Exodus or PL you can be salty but none of the rest of us will ever get a sniff of these ships.
Getting hung up on museum collection/retirement fund ships seems more than a little obsessive AND not having more AT ships from here on in means that the future AT playing field is less biased towards the PL, Hydra guys that will end up owning them anyway.
Iām slightly sad to see them go too, but honestly itās not a bad thing for the game.
Itās totally about the prize ships. Maybe some teams will still compete regardless, but as has been pointed out by others - the range and quality of entrants is going to decrease significantly.
How about handing out prior AT ships as prizes from now on? Maybe starting from the earliest AT ships ever were a prize and moving forward each year to the next one. Would that not be good enough a reward?
Noā¦ they are special because we were assured there would NEVER be more of them
what about handing out more stratios emergency responders?
Iād fly thatā¦ i love strats
honestly who gives a flying crap. most of these ships never see the light of day anyway. 99 percent of all players will never even get the chance to drool over them. so why should anyone but the upper 1 percent of eve players give a crap anyway. imo the alliance tournament is the most boring thing in PVP anyway. The most engaging form of PVP is what happens at ground level.
i actually had to force myself to give a crap about the caldari cup during fanfest.
The height of AT popularity was when evebet existed. People like their e-sports and sports with a bit of gambling. That raised the emotions for everyone who watched them and had his bet in.
You donāt understand how much time and practice it takes to do well in the AT do you ?
Our team did decent last year, we had 3 practice a week towards the end, 3hour minimum eachā¦
How would you like to be denied the rewards of rewards for your efforts ?
Take what ever sport you like and have those people take the big reward out, they would likely quit !