trace_sl wrote:
My fix, monorail system from airport area to the Convention Center. You can have a hotel row and parking and then a system that just runs back and forth.
Again, you are asking a city to spend millions on a system that may only be used for about 40 days/year. The other 320+ days it will be unused and costly to maintain. This is not a viable solution.
The fact is, there is NO solution for Gen Con because in all honesty, it is probably working the best it can with the resources it has. It is also in the best city for Gen Con for the greater majority of attendees. Is it perfect? No. What is?
The main issues for the very much small number of attendees who are complaining about it all center around housing. (I mean very small because overall, you really don't see a great number of people actually vocalizing a "problem"). Would moving Gen Con fix the housing issues? If you move it to a coast, you will increase the number of people flying in. Those flying spend less as they have much more limited storage for their goods on the flight back than those who drive in. If you move it elsewhere in the middle of the US, you run into even more of a housing "problem" as there will be fewer "connected" hotel rooms. Everybody wants a connected hotel. No matter where you go, someone will be left out, and you may still end up with the same number of dissatisfied people.
Who actually "NEEDS" a connected hotel? Well, nobody does. Handicapped/ADA people? Their homes are probably not connected by a skywalk to the grocery store, school, mall where they live and the are able to get around fine. Vendors? I agree with a previous poster who thought it was easier to just drive in, unload at the door, and then park rather than dragging everything to/from the hotel. Employees? Again I will use the same argument as I used with the handicapped/ADA people. The fact is nobody NEEDS a connected hotel, but we all WANT one. Should there be rewards for attending year after year? Possibly. I join the hotel rewards program and try to stay in the same places when I travel building up to a free night or two. It would be nice if I were to be able to either use my hotel rewards for a free night or more during Gen Con, or use the points to lower my hotel bill. Either way, I get rewards I can use for another trip elsewhere later on.