Yes, that had been investigated and explained in the first announcement post about this year:

Unfortunately it was impossible with the funds implied. It would mean having a trifold budget and thus having a trifold price (minimumly), seeing the idea behind being as open as possible.

Even for US visitors coming to Kraków will actually be more affordable than coming to Frisco (unless one would live in SF and already have housing, which would equal to no-flights or hotels) - as ticketprice of SteemFest would be around $1000 then and then $150 usd average hotelprice/night.

Please consider come and join in Kraków! Alternative: livestream.