I have a city in mind that is probably much like several other cities. Not going to name it, but it has a million square foot convention center (ICC is 1.3 million sf), at least 10 hotels within walking distance of the CC, restaurants galore, lots of things to do very close by... however, it still only adds up to about two-thirds of what is needed for GenCon. There would have to be a contract in place a year or more before GenCon left Indy to get investors to build more hotels for which there is space (I'm fairly certain). Again, I feel like there are several cities like this, but they would just need that push of "In two years, we will have 70,000 people come to our city for four days in late July/early August, and most all of them want to be within walking distance of the convention center." Otherwise, I don't see GenCon going anywhere ever because, as has been said, Indianapolis is kind of like a unicorn when it comes to the space needed at the given price point with attached hotels.
So, the first thing to look for in a replacement location for 2021 is whether the actual convention centre is big enough. The second is what does it have for all-hours public transit and how many more hotel rooms beyond those right close to the centre are thus made easily accessible.
* - taxis and-or uber are not part of this equation and never will be.
What is the fear and resistance that people have to cabs and uber?
Many do not consider the unregulated environment of Uber to be safe (I'm a huge Uber user myself, but I get the reasons why single-females-travelling-alone for example might not want to risk it).
Well, it is a pretty dead horse, but it does bear, IMHO, prepping people for possibilities to look at this. Certainly Las Vegas would be more economical (once you get there). Plenty of rooms within walking distance, huge convention facilities and as a plus, Gen Con is right in the hottest part of the year, a decided low point in tourism.
Orlando similarly as Gen Con is historically close to the school year and another relatively low time. (City, Avg hotel cost (as you can see this includes non-downtown for Indy), Con center space, Total sleeping rooms (also including non-downtown).
So not all of these would be "better" but if Gen Con were to move, probably to one of these:
Personally out of that list, I'd go with St. Louis or Kansas City. Chicago would be nice, but you have to bus people from McCormick Place to downtown (except for the one hotel actually at McCormick place).
Las Vegas is interesting as GenCon would fit in the MGM Grand all by itself! The "gaming" nature of Gen Con could work against it their though.
Yes, I've used Uber at Gen Con many times. And there are always taxis at the stand over at the downtown Mariott and most any other hotel doorman will call you one.
Uber is hit or miss IMHO.
As I said before, you have to draw a circle around the location, say 1000 miles, that is the where people will come from. If a location does cover that area, Gen Con will lose people. Indy is a great central location, the city just needs a monorail system.
So not all of these would be "better" but if Gen Con were to move, probably to one of these: [...] 5. Houston, TX USD $109 1,200,000 Sq. Ft.48,430 [...]
So, using Houston as an example, Houston hosts several GenCon sized conventions or larger each year: International Quilt Festival, about 62k attendees, the Offshore Technology Conference, 108k attendees in 2014, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (much harder to count since the HLSR takes place over weeks).
But, there are only 5k or so downtown hotel rooms, and many are not within as easy a walking distance of the convention center (IQF). There are even fewer near the convention center complex at the NRG Stadium (OTC and HLSR). Most attendees travel by car or chartered bus shuttles.
I still like wjpennington's thread summary post. That post should be stickied at the top of each year's General Info forum.
Monorail! *sings song from the Simpsons*
I'll confirm you can cross Chicago off that list, on the criteria of far less walking distance hotels, which is clearly something people desire, coupled with far higher costs pretty much across the board. It would be sweet to Gencon out on the lake shore and in Mellenium Park. Renting boats on Lake Michigan could become the new holy grail of Gencon accomodations.
Mono means one, and rail means rail.
It's more of Shelbyville idea.
Columbus, OH 1,700,000 Sq. Ft. 26,487 Rooms Indianapolis, IN 742,075 Sq. Ft. 19,870 Rooms Source: http://www.cvent.com/rfp/us-destinations-comparison-chart-e6702a5296714ff38e1e75f26d7ca082.aspx
I pulled these numbers from mrshiny's post above - I have seen these numbers before and simply put I call BULL! Not bull on Mr Shiny, but bull on the manipulation of the numbers by those submitting them to the website in the first place.
Many of us have been to both Origins in Columbus and Gen Con in Indinapolis. Simply put, my experience is that the Columbus convention center is smaller than Indy's. These numbers state that the Greater Columbus Convention Center is one million square feet bigger. Let me state that again ONE MILLION Square Feet Bigger! Simply put, it is not true - common sense experience for anyone who has visited both know this to not be true. You can look at the foot prints of both buildings on a tool like google maps and see that it isn't true.
The total room numbers also seem inflated, probably as a result of using a larger geographic radius. Again, no one who has been to both conventions could reasonably say that there are more total hotel rooms, convenient to the convention center, in Columbus vs. Indy.
I think people don't understand the city and state have a large impact on what is happening. If we, as the people who are attending and are spending the money, are not happy, we should be expressing this to the city and state leaders.
The city needs to step forward and help Gencon solve some of the problems like transportation. The state needs to step forward as well.
Went through this when it was at the MECCA center,learened to love Indy after they moved it.... If its not broke,, dont try to fix it....