That said, I've spent plenty of time at Union Station, which is almost as far, whereas I don't think I've ever been inside the Westin, which used to be fairly central. We go where our tickets send us. Last year there weren't many events in the stadium, but this year there are a lot of popular groups there. There might actually be less walk-by traffic in the ICC, except for Gen Con newbies who don't know how big the con is. Those of us buying event tickets will probably pass near your tables at some point. It's the hotel spaces that are exiles.

Finally, appreciate that you have a location already! Nearly half of the events do not have locations assigned, which means that players concerned about travel time will hesitate to choose them.

I'll admit I'm feeling more optimistic.  Might not be my last GenCon.  I was about to quit X-wing and me running games, but X-wing 2.0 was announced and it's utterly revamped my enthusiasm for the game.

I'll just have to see how it goes and plan accordingly.  Thanks for the input.

Our group is listed to be at Lucas as well. I run with the Rogue Judges & at first I was very worried. We tend to take ALOT of generics for our events. Something we are kind of known for.
At first I panicked.  I was concerned about the time of travel for someone to goto one of our events, our fill rates & honestly just its a new place. We have been in teh exact same place in Gencon since I started working with them.  So its change.

after hearing lots of feedback & seeing other large event groups there I feel better knowing its a change for many. With all of us driving people ot the stadium.

I think we all have to see how it goes, anticipate a bit of "down" #'s but just know that Gencon is doing what they have to do for their growth.

Sounds like you didn't try very hard and/or are dramatically overestimating how long it takes to get from the main hall to Lucas Oil.

We always accept generics, so if you find time come on over!

Just want to remind folks to be calm & polite in this thread. It's up to individuals to decide what is "too far" or "too long," so respect that.

All attendance evidence from last year suggests there will be little to no impact on attendance for most groups in Lucas Oil, but we will of course review ticket data again in the fall and over time, gaming groups will naturally move in and out, as is appropriate during any given year.

This is probably a good time to remind everyone that no group or company "owns" a given room or space (well, outside of a sponsorship, generally) and we review locations every year to see if we need to move or adjust things to maximize all events. Sometimes that means a group or company stays in the same place year after year because they're perfectly suited for each other, or at least more than anyone else. Sometimes that means events move around a lot as other needs shift or the event/group/company tries to figure out what will work best.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Pretty much every event we are scheduled for this year is in Lucas Oil Stadium. Sorry not sure what all the fuss is about. 

I did some math earlier today.

Of the almost 15,000 scheduled events, over 6000 are at lucas oil (42%). That isn't about hours, just strict event numbers, but yeah. There is a lot happening there this year.

Read most but not all of the thread and I can understand the concern about a potential attendance drop of individual events but can also see a potential for increase as well from the fact that this alters the center of gravity of where certain types of games occur.  This opens up different hotels in the southern part of the downtown region to being closer to certain gaming events and makes them overall more attractive, which also opens other restaurants and shops to gamers downtime.  Having stayed outside of downtown the first two years and then downtown, first by the war memorial, then JW, then the Hilton 2 years, followed by the Embassy and then Hardwood I can certainly attest that hotel location does alter the character of the experience and where it would be desirable to hold games.

As for the idea that generics aren't important to these events because of some idea that the percentage is low a few thoughts:

1) with overall attendance now being capped growth of events itself would more than likely stagnant anyway but

2) generics are really an indicater of potential future year growth as they are converted to regular attendees of said events.

3)and finally most of my friends just get generics anyway since they've either gotten bored with the offerings of their usual passions or they like the thrill of a fly by the pants con, while also trying to find that new game/event to become passionate about.  As for me, my event is moved to LOS and would have been perfect with the hotel I got for us last year, this year it will be somewhat of a hike but I work as a Mailman with a walking route so this will keep my legs in working condition so bonus for me :P
 

I have some events in Lucas Oil this year and since I didn't make it over there last year I do have a few questions. 

1.  Are events actually held on the field?
2.  If so, doesn't that make a trip to the restrooms quite long?
3.  What food/drink concession areas are open in Lucas Oil?  (not going outside to food trucks)

I'm not concerned with the walk to Lucas Oil.  Really, it isn't that far.  Overall I'm looking forward to checking it out this year.  I only wish I had made it there last year so that I could have checked out the museum.

2 - Depending on where on the field you are, yes, it's a longer walk than in most of the hotels.
It's probably a similar distance to the inconvenient bits of the boardgame halls in the ICC

Someone posted in a different section of the forums and I thought I'd repeat it here.

I'll say I had fun at GenCon, but we shrank with our attendance instead of growing.   There were definitely those who played with us before and looked for us again.  We had new people who definitely had a great time and wanted to join in.   There were a lot of no shows or even just no signing up for events.  I think Lucas Oil directly impacted our attendance.

First time con goer and I can see your point as it was less crowded at LOS which translates into less eyeballs on your game and fewer players. I will say though that there are trade offs, I as a first time newbie was uncomfortable jumping into games with the crowded conditions at ICC but enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere at LOS and willingly jumped into a bunch of games there with generic tickets learning the ropes and having a blast.  Sorry your #'s were down but thanks for putting on great games!

I know it a year away but I'm gonna try and advertise a bit when it vet closer to the Con. Maybe some YouTube videos and posting in the FFG forums to try and drum up attendance.  I'm just spot balling that there will be a few like myself who isn't happy with the Xwing 2.0 reboot or some who just want to play the original version.
I also have a 3D printed Trench Run I want to run.
Gonna have some plaques made for the tournament winner and maybe a Yavin 4 hero medal for the winner of the Trench Run.
Hopefully advertising and investing a little on prizes may bring some people into the event.

The event hall was full this year even with everyone we moved to the Stadium, so if that didn't work out for some groups or even types, we will still need to determine where to locate those or what needs to be done to make them viable even when spread out.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

One of the problems we found was that last year (our first year) had a lot of walk ups.  We have visually cool looking terrain on tables that draw people in.  We didn't have that many walk ups at all.  Maybe 2 all weekend?  Possibly more as I didn't see every game, but not many. We were in the absolute far corner of Lucas Oil.  Few wanderers got to us.

The other issue was no shows.  We would sell out a table of 6 people to only have 2-4 show up.  I think the distance was too much to get out to where we were for those that did buy tickets.  We get penalized for that as we can't sell any more tickets for the event and we get no walk ups.  Then we get dinged for no shows. 

We will certainly be looking at attendance data and your event organizer will have access to that as well, so they can look at last year's data and compare it to this year's. I'm happy to review it detail with them, as well - have them get in touch with us in October so we can dig into it and see what patterns we can glean from it.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

As an EO I would like to say that I was also afraid when we got put into LOS last year. I talked with Derek and worked with him on all aspects that we could. Once the con was over last year and I expressed my concerns of it feeling like we where lighter on walk ups since being moved onto LOS he worked with me and showed me the data of our generics for each year and moving actually doubled our generics along with us still getting regular ticketed players. We have also experienced no shows on events that sold out. We also got people that where running about 10 -15 minutes late. That can be solved a little by not starting your event like we do until about 10 - 15 minutes into the hour. We will start the setup and go over some things with who is there but not actually start the event until about that time. 

So my suggestion for anyone out there is yes voice your concerns. Don't get mad about things that happen that only hurts you more and that comes from experience in running as an EO for 14 years now. Then once things are over talk with Derek to see how things actually went and work with him to make things better.