The Indianapolis Colts are due to play in Dayton Ohio on Sunday, August 7th.   And did anyone look at the Indianapolis Convention Center Web site?  They do not list Gencon............They list the college park church luncheon with a whopping total of 50 attendees, but they don't list Gencon........?........

They moved the Con. Didn't you hear?

It was this last weekend. Man, what a blast!

I see it on there !

Thu Aug 4 - Sun Aug 7 2016
Gen Con The Best Four Days in Gaming

I see where the Indianapolis Convention Center added Gencon to their event list............................
 
Still, I missed last weekend's unadvertised Gencon the prequel.......................
 
Sigh........................

If only I had known.......................oh woe is me..................woe is me.....................

2017 is when they need to pay close attention, since GenCon is scheduled to take place during week 2 of the NFL preseason (and I assume the Drum Corps International World Championships will be held there the previous week).

EDIT: Note that playing the first two full preseason weekends away isn't unheard of; this year, Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, New Orleans, Oakland, and Tampa Bay all do it.
 

GC has taken place during a home preseason weekend before. Hasn't been any big deal. Will only be worse for the Colts fans trying to stay the night now. 

It has, but GenCon has started expanding into Lucas Oil this year.  That could be a problem if the Colts want to play a home game on that weekend, but I see no reason they wouldn't work together in future years to stay away from each other.

I doubt the Colts are going to let GC do anything to the dome that would prohibit the Colts from playing there with minimal work. In other words, I don't think GC's use of the dome will get in the Colts way--the dome would be blocked off for the Colts game, including pre and post game stuff, and then usable by GC again afterwards. 

There are exhibit halls in the stadium.  I don't think anything will be on the field.

http://www.lucasoilstadium.com/exhibitors/getting-around-los-meeting-spaces.aspx

But that won't be that big of a deal for GC. They'll just not use those areas that day. 

I doubt that, if there was a Colts game during Gen Con, that Gen Con would have access to LOS at all.  Currently everything from the connecting tunel that runs under South Street to the Exhibit Halls and Conference rooms are used during game day and the day before for setup.  

Why should we worry about scheduling? The Colts play preseason away games too; as armadilloal pointed out, it's probably not too problematic to simply schedule that weekend to be one of the games the Colts play on the road. Unlike the regular season where there's a set league formula (i.e. vs. your division's members twice a year, ever team in one other division within the conference, etc.), the preaseason is left up to the individual franchises to negotiate amongst themselves with only loose guidelines to follow (for example: can't play anyone outside the NFL). So it should just be a matter of the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium getting together to map things out. 

Again, there have been home games during GenCon when the con center was in use. The only difference now seems to be blocking off the parts of the dome needed for the game for only those times when they are needed. The rest of Gencon would go on as planned. Some events would be in the dome on some days, and not on others. 

1. Lucas Oil Stadium is it's own entity, managed by the Capital Improvement Board, who also manages the Convention Center (sorry if you already knew that, but others here may not). They (the CIB) have an interest in doing their best to keep conventions happy. Especially one of the largest ones the ICC has ever landed. They're never going to tell the Colts "No, you can't have that weekend", but at the same time it's not like they'll have no ability whatsoever to try and influence things.
   
2. The NFL franchises handle their own preseason scheduling - which is a really key point in all of this - and the NFL generally stays out of it (minus urging teams to keep up marquee preseason Monday Night matchups). So the team wouldn't be as hamstrung by the league in preseason scheduling as they would in the regular season.
   
3. The Colts generally haven't been poor community partners. They of course are not ever going to do anything that loses them money, but given that they'd have to play preseason road games anyway - and again, given that they aren't restricted by the league's regular season formula at that point - they'd be presented with a choice to be welcoming or be strict. Why not at least listen? For preseason games, I don't see the franchise giving a damn if a certain weekend was an away game as long as it didn't take away from the number of home games they want to play.
   

Take a look here:
http://www.lucasoilstadium.com/exhibitors/getting-around-los-meeting-spaces.aspx

I'm pretty sure Gen Con is going to used the spaces on the event level, primarily the halls and rooms on the north side (based on space sizes in the press releases). When I've attended Colts games, most people enter on Street level, one floor up. If they have seats at the 100 level, they walk into the entry plaza, which is above the meeting halls, then walk down into their seats.

The CIB planned for simultaneous access. I imagine that if there is a year with a conflict, there may be restrictions or partitioning of the underground tunnel, but both events can take place. It would be a lot like when the RCA Dome field was right across the hall from the TCG room and both were in use. They put up some ropes and had some guards there to make sure you didn't accidentally use the field doors on that day.

If there really is an unresolvable conflict, an event blocking a pro game on the schedule is not unprecedented. In Chicago, the Bulls and Blackhawks have 2-week road trips while the Ringling Brothers circus uses the United Center. Banker's Life Fieldhouse in Indy has some similar constraints.

Yes, looking at that map, Gen Con is using event level space this year. True Dungeon will be in Exhibit Halls 1 and 2, and the anime/animation program will be in meeting rooms 1-12.

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

The NFL hasn't cared about Gen Con in the past, I doubt they would in the future.

But I know very little about how the Colts treat the community, so maybe they'll act that way.

The thing is--Gen Con gets scheduled years out, while Preseason schedules are year to year. So 'working with' Gen Con could only amount to the Colts finding out when Gen Con is in town, and then either having a game that weekend, or not. There is no ability for the Colts to ask Gen Con "how about you pick a different week this year, because we did last year". And when Gen Con goes to make its own schedule and book it with the Con center, the Colts will have no idea what weeks are good or bad for them.

The NFL works around events already scheduled at/around the NFL stadiums. So Gen Con would never face a situation where the game could interfere with it. 

This is planned out well in advance. 

This is definitely true of hotel space, and I don't know why it could never happen in the Con area. But my claim is that Gen Con, if that happens, would simply adapt. Don't put True Dungeon in an area that won't make it available for Saturday and Sunday, for example :)