This thread had me wondering what rooms might still be available in the area after all the Housing hubbub calmed down. One person posted that there were no affordable rooms available within 10 miles of the convention center. This doesn't seem to be true.

I took a quick look on the Marriott and Hilton sites. I found 7 Marriott hotels with rooms available ranging from $156 to $313 per night. Hilton shows 8 hotels with rooms available ranging from $127 to $249. So it seems if you are willing to stay a little further away, there are more than enough affordable hotel rooms available. Certainly not as good as staying at an attached hotel for sure but it doesn't seem to support the argument that Indy doesn't have enough hotel rooms available. 

Does Vegas have a good convention center NOT in a hotel? I was just at a convention for real estate at Mandalay bay....and with 17,000 it was tight in the hallways. 60k wouldn't work well there..sure they have a lot of exhibition rooms and a very large main hall, but the hallways and escalators didn't seem to handle 17k all that well. But yes, there are a LOT more rooms in the area including Mandalay, Luxor and Excalibur (all attached by a free tram) (And Luxor and Excalibur are a bit more kid friendly (and Mandalay has great pools and an aquarium.)

Also, August in Vegas is BRUTAL hot, I think I'd take 90 and humid over 120...granted you don't have to go outside in Vegas but 4 days of no sunlight isn't a great idea. 

But that being said, living in Los Angeles, I'd much rather fly to Vegas than Indy...

And I know people are anti San Diego, but there is no better convention center than the one in San Diego.....I think the hotels attached to the convention center and within the Gaslamp are pretty significant, but I haven't checked the stats...All I know is that the 3-4 times I've been to comicon (which handles crowds of 120,000+) I would think that it could handle 60-70k quite well. And they could borrow the bus system comicon uses to connect hotels further away, which works quite well (unsure of operating costs).

Sure, a satellite Gencon may fail on the coast because everyone wants to go to the "real" Gencon, but if Gencon just up and moved to a new location, I'm sure it would do just fine. If I'm willing to fly to Indy, I'm willing to fly pretty much anywhere in the States.

It would just be a question if the City itself could handle Gencon after the hangover of Comicon just a few weeks before it...the locals may protest.

and what about Anaheim? Not enough rooms nearby? 

I hear people like the original poster saying they have been going to Gen Con for years and have always had a room downtown until this year and all I can think is "Wow! You have been so lucky for so long, I guess it was time for you to have a slight down turn"

Maybe that is harsh and I wish they could get a room downtown, but I do not feel sorry for them.

My buddy who has also been going for decades and really, really wants to stay downtown booked a room at $500 or so a night in case he did not hit the housing jackpot. That is what people who are prepared to pay for that luxury do. They prepare in advance and ready themselves for the cost.

I have been blessed to stay downtown and have had remote sites. If you cannot get a downtown hotel in the housing block or you do not want to pay exorbitant rates outside the housing block and you do not have a car, I highly recommend you rent a car for the duration and drive in and park. I have found this to be a much more inexpensive way of enjoying they convention from a remote hotel.

I went outside the housing block and got a two twin beds and sleeper sofa for $80 a night. We wake up and get cleaned up and then head into downtown where the $30 a day parking is just a few feet from the convention center. If we need to drop off purchases or gear, the car is right there. We go from 8:00 AM to 1:00 AM so there is very little need for us to go back to a room, although I understand that some might want to do so. In that case there is plenty of relaxing chairs and couches (especially in the JW Marriott) where one could take a rest or I could always relax in my car if needed.

I guess what I am saying is that we can complain about this and that and wish for this and that, but if we were realistic we would prepare a secondary hotel in advance of the housing portal opening and always have a back up plan when disappointment comes.

I did not want to sound harsh or unfeeling and I really do hope that everyone enjoys the convention.

Every year, I hear people bring up Vegas. The city I live in. It is a terrible idea! I repeat, it is a bad, horrible terrible idea. Yes Vegas has the space, I can't deny that. It is not the place for GenCon. You have to walk through the hotels. Which in my opion and I know many others will suck. They are smokey, and crowded and unlike GenCon crowded they will be filled with a bunch of other non gaming people. It is hot, the people suck ass, and yes it hosts CES. That convention which is larger is very different from GenCon.
Indy is crowded, that is an issue. But they are a very welcoming town, that does a lot to accommodate GenCon. The atmosphere is great, when you are in your hotel and walking around, most of the people there are also fellow gamers. Yes there are homeless and some people say they are spooked by them. Well Vegas has those as well, as well as a ton of drunks, and tourists who are assholes, hookers, people who stand along the strip passing out escort cards, which then are tossed all over the place. 
It is a terrible place for GenCon. You will gain all the space you want and lose everything else. The main money making in Vegas is gambling. GenCon attendees are not there to gamble, thus they will not be as welcomed as some people think.

I could go on for a while. But yeah, my city sucks. Not for all conventions, but for what GenCon is, it would suck.

People keep mentioning the extra space at other convention centers, but space isn't really an issue for the immediate future. GenCon's overflow has been easily absorbed by nearby hotels, and they have just now begun to use the stadium space.

I was browsing the forums today and I was shocked to see this thread get to so many responses!
 
I have a friend that comes with me each year that has cerebral palsy. He is wheelchair-bound. In the last 5 years we've been attending, we have never once got a connected room. While undeniably it would make it easier for him to attend, he has never once complained about the situation. We always manage fine with an airbnb or a vrbo rental, often we stay outside the city boundary and drive in 10-20 mins. On the occasions that he's needed to get around without someone to drive him he calls an Uber or a Lyft, or just wheels himself to where he needs to go. We often just take purchases back to the car a few times a day if we're in the dealer hall.
 
There are ample rooms in Indy. The lottery is a fair way to handle connected rooms. There are a million ways to get around. The con has not outgrown the hall and the connected hotels and the stadium. I suspect it will not for a long, long time. Hell, the organizers themselves have pretty much said so now that its renewed its Indy contract until 2020.
 
If your complaint is 'I am personally inconvenienced because I don't want to have to spend time or money on commuting or parking' understand that your comfort level dropping does not support the argument that somehow GenCon has 'outgrown' Indy. All your complaint says is that you wish things were better for you, or perhaps people like you that want a certain level of comfort. If you can afford to attend the con, you can also afford the time and money to commute 20 minutes a day into the con. If you can afford the time to walk back to your room and drop off stuff you can also afford to walk back to your car and drop off stuff. It's not make or break for Indy or GenCon that you're personally inconvenienced.
 
Incoming arguments:
“But the con is not how it _used_ to be”
Get. Over. It. We all get older, things change. Despite Gencon getting bigger (this is a good thing btw!) Indy is still the best location. There are many other, smaller cons now if that’s what you’re looking for.
 
“My stay/level of comfort/con experience is different then everyone else’s because of X/Y/Z”
Yep. You might be a special case. I agree that special cases ought to have preferential treatment. It would make things easier for us if my buddy could get a connected room. Despite the fact that we haven’t we still always have an amazing time. If your needs are truly unique please try to get an ADA room. We all want you to come to the con and have a blast like the rest of us!
 
“GenCon would benefit from a different space as a convention because of size of halls/different city layout/different city culture/(insert any other reason).”
Perhaps? There are people who generously devote their time each year that make this con happen. It’s very likely that all your factors have been considered and Indy still came out on top. That’s a good thing! That means that we’re confident that Indy is the right choice! If another city ever makes a better offer and the folks that put this together agree that it’s a good move it’ll happen :)
 
Looking very much forward to seeing all of you for the 50th con!
 

https://www.vegas.com/weather/averages.html

I love it when it's 103 degrees in the shade at my game convention, and my card sleves melt onto my legacy decks!  But then again, I'm a Komodo Dragon.

I cannot necessarily envision that kind of welcoming attitude happening in a place that would see us as just another weekend event alongside the dozens of others happening nearby, like Las Vegas or Chicago.  Though I will admittedly almost certainly follow Gen-Con no matter where it goes.  Well...maybe not to, like, Mississippi.

2003–2006: Gen Con SoCal

Gen Con SoCal  2003  December 11–14, 2003   ACC  Anaheim, California  Attendance 4148
Gen Con SoCal  2004  December 2–5, 2004       ACC, Anaheim, California  Attendance 5559
Gen Con SoCal  2005  November 18–20, 2005   ACC, Anaheim, California  Attendance 6326
Gen Con SoCal  2006  November 16–19, 2006   ACC, Anaheim, California  Attendance 5840

I went to Gen Con during the SoCal years and it was very fun...just a much smaller crowd than Gen Con.  It was in the fall, so attendance was blah but the location was fine and yes, there are many hotels nearby (Disneyland is next door and walking distance away).  San Diego would be fantastic and we know it could handle the crowd as it already handles more for Comic Con. I also can't think of a more pleasant city than San Diego.

Still, I really hope that Gen Con stays in Indianapolis.  It just feels like the best location to me.

Years back, I think only about 3 years I had a hotel room within walking distance of the CC in Milwaukee, 10+ years of going there. We made do. Last 3 years our group has been very lucky and gotten a DT room. This year I could only find one out of the block that is 15 miles out. Not the end of the world. Just means we have to do a bit more logistics planning to make it all work. And we've got 6 months to do it. (From when housing opened.)

I do realize there are those who may have needs that a DT room makes it easier for them. But in the end, sorry, if the dice didn't role your way, and you really - really want to go, you will think of how to make it work. And if it "Ruins my whole vacation", then look at other vacation ideas. Smaller Cons are growing in popularity for the very reason mentioned by others. Less crowded, cheaper and easier to attend. Or take a different kind of vacation. A romantic trip to the Caribbean for example.

Just don't let the details be the whole end of the world to you.

50k+ people of course not everyone is going to get downtown hotel rooms. I'm an old man with bad knees and would love a downtown hotel room for ease(and so I can sleep past 7am :P) but its not going to ruin my vacation that I'm staying at southport this year because I failed the lottery. I've been going to Indy Gencon for the entire time its been in Indy and I've failed to get a downtown room twice(and failed at the housing portal 4 times) and both times I was disappointed but not outraged I just got an outlayer hotel. The only problems I had were with parking I just used my car as a drop off point instead of my hotel room and took rest where I could find it, like the auction room sit down and maybe find something interesting to buy. Now with Gate 10 parking I feel that even the chore of finding a decent parking place is taken care of and with a guaranteed parking spot I probably don't even need to roll in at 7ish.

SDCC doesn't publish unique attendee numbers, just total turnstile attendance.  GenCon publishes both.

So for instance, last year GenCon had 201,852 in turnstile attendance.  SDCC had 167,000.

Also SDCC caps attendees, so if you think people complain about not getting a downtown room, just imagine what it would be like if GenCon did what SDCC did and limited the number of passes to get in!  Zoinks!