1208645:Convenience has nothing to do with the cost of getting somewhere and was probably a poor choice of words on my part. But if you asked me (or most card players, let alone European ones) to choose a city to hold your flagship event in stateside, none of us will ever choose Austin. If you ignore Indianapolis, there's been Boston, Charlotte, San Francisco, Anaheim, New Jersey, Seattle and Orlando as DMF locations over the past couple of years.
I'm sure this is going to be a big fight that will end badly, but when has that stopped me before. :)
So here's some background information:
1) I've been involved with "a few" major tournaments in the last five years in the United States. Off the top of my head, we've gone to: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Detroit, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Austin, Columbus, Charlotte, Baltimore/Washington DC, Boston, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, New Orleans, and St. Louis.
2) As the OP manager, I picked Austin. Had I to do it over, I would still again. There are two things I wish had been different, which I'll discuss below.
As soon as Worlds was announced to be in Austin about 20 people from UK changed their minds about going.
Wait a minute - I thought it was Americans that were supposed to be stupid. ;)
Austin isn't a small town. It's top 15 in the US, and has 1.6 million people in the metropolitan area. If we looked at Europe and eliminated cities based on size, it would be the equivalent of saying that Amsterdam or Munich aren't options for flagship events.
I also disagree that size should be the primary factor for events. We ran a Pro Circuit in New York City, and players hated that rooms at the Best Western in NYC start at $200 a night, and can easily be double that based on demand. We heard the same thing when we held a event in downtown San Francisco. If you try moving to venues that have more reasonable food and lodging options such as San Mateo (San Francisco) or Schaumburg (Chicago), people complain that there's nothing to do, or they have to rent a car.
Have you been to the Los Angeles Convention Center or the Dallas Convention Center? I have, and they suck. You're in a big building in a crappy part of town.
Austin is one of the few places in the US where the convention center isn't in the middle of nowhere or in a bad part of town. If you claim that there wasn't nightlife or restaurants nearby, it's because you didn't look very hard. There are over 40 bars and night clubs within four blocks of the convention center - if that's not enough "nightlife" for you I don't know what it.
What I'm basically saying is that players (and specifically international players that qualify through honor for these events, so your key customers) want to do something other than play cards, and Austin is not a stand-out location for these players. New York, Boston, Vegas, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orlando are all locations that would certainly net you close to 100 more TCG players in the World Championships.
Things I wish I could have changed:
- The University of Texas having a home football game that weekend. When we booked the venue, their football schedule was not public. That doubled hotel prices near the convention center, as everyone wants to say next to 6th Street and the Warehouse District.
- Providing better travel information to international players in their local language. There was quite a bit of information about travel, hotels, restaurants, nightlife, and things to do, but it was all in English.
All I can do is compare to EU DMFs which are all in cities people want to visit with the exception of Milton Keynes (which was basically Darkmoon Faire London, but miles outside of London in a shopping centre).
Comparing them to European events isn't very informative. Events in the US have to significant challenges:
1) Distance
2) Population density
London-Paris or Paris-Amsterdam are both about 300 miles. Los Angeles to San Francisco is over 400 miles and they're in the same state. Los Angeles to Seattle is 1100 miles, while Los Angeles to Dallas is over 1400.
We also don't have any inexpensive regional transportation options. You either have a car or buy an airline ticket. Technically there are passenger trains in a few areas, but they're almost all expensive and slow.
It's unfortunate that people jumped to conclusions or didn't look for advice before the event.
BD
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Ben Drago
Marketing Manager, Organized Play