Gencon LLC files Chapter 11

http://www.gencon.com/2008/corporate/news-pr/releases/2008/2008.02.15.Press.aspx
GenCon has filed chapter 11. Having run conventions, Shan and I are always boggled that GenCon would be a money losing venture. No matter how we crunched the numbers, we couldn’t figure out how it would be a loss unless they were paying for massive coke parties. Granted these were based on the Mecca GenCons but they should hold up.

The booth costs are huge. I believe booth costs back then were between $500 and $1000 each. With over 200 booths in the dealers’ room, even comping the ones for TSR and later Wizkids, this should generate over $200,000 and should easily cover the cost of the convention space for the week.

The memberships used to cost $50 each. They claimed 30,000 attendees. Even with convention math, this should generate $500,000 which should cover the costs of preregistration books, program books, and any extra convention space that the dealers didn’t cover. This should also cover costs involved with a salary for a dedicated person in charge of the convention all year as well as a staff for the week of the convention.
They used to trade volunteer hours for memberships to help spread out the manpower as well.

The ticket prices for the games should easily cover the costs of printing of tickets. The tickets cost $2 and the judge could cash them in for $1 back. Even if every one of those attendees only played 1 game, the tickets should generate at least $30,000 and probably closer to well over $100,000. This should cover any cost of bringing in a big name guests.

The hotels used to be filled. Based on standard convention deals, if you guarantee a certain number of rooms booked, the hotel usually comps you a certain amount of rooms. With over 10 hotels being filled, any hotel space you need should be covered.
Could it be the spread of GenCon to GenCon SoCal, GenConUK, GenConOZ causing trouble with GenCon itself? See the open letter from Peter himself about GenConSoCal’s demise: http://www.gencon.com/2007/socal/press/Open-Letter.aspx

All the best Peter, we want you to be around in 5 to 10 years when we can start taking the kids again.