3 dollar difference adds up when your buying for mult ppl, but I would not even mention anything if the con exp was not cut in half (when it really don't need to be), less exp should be lowering the price not making it more then when they had twice as much. It's sad about lat year but sticking it to the customer is not the way to do it.

I will enjoy my time anyway but the numbers are a bit off

Fewer people doesn't necessarily mean that their costs have come down equally.

We know that as it currently stands, they are implementing extra safety procedures. More cleaning and stocking of sanitizer likely means more people on duty, which costs more. The convention center has also gone through upgrades, which I wouldn't be surprised might be passed onto those utilizing the space to some degree. I work for a real estate management firm, and believe me, if we upgrade a building, it's not done out of the goodness of our heart. Oh, the improvements may be legit good things, but that work comes at a premium as well, and it's not done entirely out of pocket with a smile.

In fact, with reduced admission (currently) lined up, people need to represent even more of the funding provided, individually. 1/2 attendance versus (hypothetically) 2/3 or 3/4 of the expenses is going to have to come from somewhere. Maybe that'll be tied to reduced profit margins, maybe it eats into some 'rainy day' funds, whatever it is, if the bump is only $3 per ticket, that's a rather unremarkable boost all told.

Plus, with the vaccine roll out and states acting in response to falling cases, demand might be high enough for there to be actual competition for slots. Just as Gencon missed out on 2020's revenue, so did the convention center, and they will presumably be looking to make up some of that shortfall as well.

It's a complicated issue with a lot of fees, costs, and contracts that we don't have access to (nor should we), but I wouldn't just assume 'smaller con means it should be cheaper'. If it was affordable in 2019, a minor rounding error in the ticket price upwards shouldn't be a deal breaker, and if it is, then hopefully those folks can save up and come back to a much more normal 2022 event.

Doubling the cost of the tickets would be 'sticking it to the customer'. A $3 bump is making a mountain out of a molehill.

I didn't realize updates had been made to the ICC. I'm looking forward to seeing those. There's no way that 1/2 of the attendance = 1/2 of the cost. I'd assume that the cost difference to run the convention would actually be fairly minimal.

With that in mind, I'm surprised the bump is so small, really. I bought 8 single-day badges instead of four 4-day ones, because we won't be able to attend all four days and I figure Gencon needs that $44. It also leaves the 4-day badges available for the folks who can utilize them. 

This is an event that I've grown to love and want to support. Just because it's big, it doesn't mean that the organizers are getting rich off of it, this year especially.

I think VIG badges went up $50 this year, if you want to talk about where the real price gouging is happening ;) (honestly it seems like until this year VIG was priced too low if anything, considering it was guaranteed to sell out and leave maybe hundreds of people wanting in)

Sometimes I feel like a privileged jerk in that I literally do not even pay attention to how much the normal badges cost.  Well, O.K., since I have been volunteering for almost a decade I was not even paying for them, but my thought process was that I would pay any cost to attend, and then maybe the REST of the stuff is where you should pay attention to costs.

As long as you reach your desired sales quota, then your price is not high enough. That quota is not to sell out. The only way to not see a price increase, is for people not to purchase. At that point, when not enough people purchase to meet cost, then the price may be lowered or the product is removed from the market. 

If you cannot afford to go, if a $3 increase is too much (even for a smaller attendance cap), if you have to sleep 10 to a room, or sleep in the hallways, or whatever....just don't go.  It's just that easy.
 

Really, it's not.   Buying Power and Inflation explain *why* it's going up.   Luxury verses necessity informs how you react to that change.    Responding to why it went up with "Yeah, but you don't have to go." isn't a valid counterpoint, it's a red herring.