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02-26-2006, 10:11 AM
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#1 |
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NYCC: CROWDED OUT AT THE CON
 by Matt Brady and Ryan McLellandWithout a doubt, the story of the New York Comic-Con on Saturday didn’t come from a publisher, creator, or manufacturer. The story was the crowd. In retrospect, on Saturday, many exhibitors and pros at the con were looking back at Friday’s healthy turnout as something they perhaps should’ve taken as a warning sign. While Friday featured programming all day for trade exhibitors and attendees, the exhibition floor was only open to press and trade from noon until four. By two o’clock, the floor was looking nicely full – a good crowd for a Friday of a show. When the floor was readying to open to the public at four o’clock, a long line had formed of people waiting to get in, both the exhibition floor, and the programming. Later that evening, the floor was pleasantly crowded. A lot of people, true, but also, there was still room to move around, stop and talk, and take the time to look at booths. Virtually all exhibitors were pleased with the turnout, anticipating great things for the weekend, particularly Saturday, which is usually the strongest day of any three-day show. Little did they know. Thanks to a blitz by the local media, a lot of people thought it would be a good idea to go to the New York Comic-Con on Saturday. Not a lot in terms of a comic book convention, but a lot in terms of a rock show. Reportedly, the line for buying tickets formed sometime in the early morning for the 11:00am opening. By 10:00am, that line stretched through several queue areas of the Jacob Javits Center, as Comic-Con staffers were constantly asking people to move one way or the other, relocating the line as it grew too large for one area, and overflowed into another. Those who were lucky enough to buy tickets for the show (more on that in a moment) were then moved into another line, that being the line for those who already had tickets and were waiting for the exhibition floor to open. As the clock ticked by towards 11:00am, that line grew to a similar proportion as the other, weaving through different areas of the Javits Center, with staffers herding people form one area to another as it rapidly outgrew its space. At 11:00, both the exhibition floor opened, and programming began. While a trickle of people turned into a rush on the floor, early-morning programming took a major hit. Case in point, Marvel’s “Cup ‘O Joe” panel, which was scheduled to begin at 11:00am. At 11:00am, though, many ticket holders were still an hour if not more from getting on to the exhibition floor, while those who were hoping to buy tickets and then quickly get themselves to the panel didn’t have a chance. As a result, “Cup ‘O Joe” saw relatively sparse attendance, something accentuated by the fact that the convention organizers, considering the hometown and overall appeal of Quesada and Marvel put the Editor-in-Chief into the Special Events Hall, which could seat approximately 3,000 people. It was clear to everyone that maybe one sixth to one seventh of that amount made it in. Other early morning panels suffered from poor attendance as well. By 12:30pm, the show had officially sold out, with no more tickets available. Comic-Con staffers then began turning people away at the door, and reportedly, police were stationed in the bus drop-off area, allowing only those with yellow exhibitor badges to disembark at the Javits Center, sending all others back. Around the same time the Comic-Con sold out of tickets, the exhibition floor (which can reportedly hold 10 to 12,000 people) was closed by city officials, due to the crowd size. For a period that stretched from roughly noon until 5:00 pm, access to the main convention floor was tightly limited with one-to-one departures to admittance exchanges going on, or, for longer periods, no new people allowed on the floor.  Lines, which hadn’t really shrunk at all from the start of the day, began to grow again, but this time, with more frustration in the air, as those who paid for tickets could not access the floor. Along with convention attendees, for large portions of the day as well, retailers, professionals, and exhibitors were not allowed back on the floor either. The latter translates to a quick lunch or bathroom break, or jumping out to take part in a panel or take a meeting – and you were out for hours, joining the line with others who were waiting to get back on the floor. The frustration level among everyone, needless to say, was palpable, as due to the sheer volume of people, communication between Comic-Con staffers and attendees broke down, virtually entirely. Fans like Shawn Flynn of Bellmawr, NJ found that he waited in line for an hour for tickets just to wait longer in line with no time on when he was getting into the actual show. “The police shut it down,” was what Flynn heard noting that at 2:30pm, he was “just hopes to get in.” Walking down the line, Flynn’s comments were only the tip of the iceberg, both in content and tone. “Big rip off,” said one fan waiting in a line that was moving with glacial slowness. If there was any bright side, the situation was a unifier for the industry – it was an equal opportunity stopper, as mingling along the line, many pros who were as locked out as the fans gathered in small groups, trying to figure out what to do – stay and try to get in, or go home. Reportedly, the show turned away in the neighborhood of 4 to 6,000 people. In the cases of individuals who purchased tickets online, only to be confronted with an hours-long line or those who bought tickets at the show, and could not get in for hours, and left, Reed Exhibitions, which runs the show, had fliers available in the show office in regards to its ticket refund policy – and refunds are not guaranteed. Saturday, Reed acknowledged the state of affairs at the show, and posted the following message on their website: ”Due to large and unanticipated consumer participation at New York Comic-Com on Saturday, February 24th, show organizers have announced that on-site ticket purchase and registration for Sunday, February 25th is CLOSED. There will be NO on-site ticket sales for that day. Guests who have pre-registered for New York Comic-Con will be granted priority status and everyone who has already paid for a ticket is guaranteed access to the show.”Meanwhile, lurking around the information booth one could witness even exhibitors like employees from Wizard Magazine unable to get onto the exhibition floor, saying that everyone was just confused as to what is going on. An unnamed fan felt the show, which he first attended on Friday was awful. “San Diego is much more organized,” he said. “There’s a better balance of dealers, exhibitors, and artists. This space is way too small. There’s not enough dealers. It’s poorly done with a lot of room for improvement.” As for the floor space, many attendees noted that aisles on the floor were between 6-8 feet wide, rather than the more common 10 to 12 feet. Artists Alley, which runs the perimeter of the hall on two sides has a smaller aisleway. According to some retailers in the back of the hall, the show floor was disproportionately crowded, with the larger, more immovable crowd near the front of the hall, clustered around the larger exhibitors and retailers. Meanwhile, retailers and exhibitors in the back saw only moderate congestion. This situation, on more than one occasion, led to an exhibitor who was outside the floor, and not allowed back in to call their booth inside the hall for help. Someone from the booth would then go out to try and get them into the hall, only to find that they were both now locked out of the hall. Bags were being checked or not allowed on the convention floor, a hardship for fans looking to buy a lot of comics and easily walk around with them. Frustrated fans bellowed at the Comic Con-staff that ushered them away from the ticket areas. As the reality of the situation became apparent to attendees, there were some who benefited, as many panels, which otherwise may have only seen rooms at 75 to 80% capacity were standing room only. Though that plus of increased crowds getting the message form creators and publishers does come with a minus – some of the larger panel rooms, were uncomfortably hot and muggy during the panels. The DC Universe panel on Saturday afternoon reportedly ended early due in part, to conditions in the room. Meanwhile, Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell hastily rescheduled his scheduled signing on the convention floor to the hallway outside the room in which his panel was held, when it was pointed out to him that not only would his fans at the panel not be able to get back onto the floor, he wouldn’t either. By late afternoon, the larger emergency of overcrowding on the floor was over, and fans, exhibitors, professionals, and retailers were allowed free access to and from the show floor. That said, the floor was comfortably crowded – with the crowd size on the order of any given full show. The crowd held up until the 7:00 closing of the floor. As for the effects of the size of the crowd on retailers while many were seeing good sales, some reported that sales were moderated, or in effect, capped by the crowd congestion, as the volume of traffic in the aisles did not allow for stopping and browsing. Plus, in consideration of the wait to get on the floor, one retailer told Newsarama, “Angry fans don’t spend money like happy fans.”  “One guy told me he was coming here, looking to spend eight hours on the floor,” another retailer said, “But in the end, he spent six hours in line and two on the floor.”By Sunday morning, it was unclear if word that no new tickets are being sold had percolated through to potential guests, as lines outside the Javits were seen as early as 8:15am (with temperatures in the 20s and high winds). Lines were quickly moved inside, and the line for guests who had already purchased tickets formed at 8:30am, with people settling in for a two and a half hour wait until the convention floor days opened at 11:00. In the convention program, Reed has already identified the dates for next year’s New York Comic-Con as February 23-25, 2007. More NYCC Coverage: Saturday Friday Newsarama's New York Comic-Con 2006 coverage is brought to you by Marvel Enterprise's & Lions Gate Home Entertainment's ULTIMATE AVENGERS: THE MOVIE, available on DVD and UMD right now |
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02-26-2006, 10:36 AM
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#2 |
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That bad huh?
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02-26-2006, 10:39 AM
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#3 |
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a shame
a few of my friends who i considered "lucky" to be able to go to the con while i had family commitments told me pretty much this same story. hell, one friend had one of the VERY rare (30 i think) wristbands to get into the frank miller signing session, but security or whoever wouldnt even let her into the area and she missed the whole thing. i just hope that the organizers of the con learn from their mistakes this year. although if the reaction from the 5 people i talked to about the con is any indicator, the crowds next year might not be an issue at all. |
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02-26-2006, 10:39 AM
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#4 |
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Intersting to note is that the Bloomberg plan for the West Side stadium that got shot down last year included using some of the real estate acquired to more than double the size of the Javitz. I haven't been there since I was I kid, but this debacle kind of highlights why people felt we needed to make the primary convention center in NYC that much bigger. The real shame is that this any kind of NY Comic-con is always going to be hamstrung by the size of the Javitz until the City can figure out how to make the Javitz bigger.
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02-26-2006, 10:40 AM
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#5 |
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That's a shame. I mean, good to hear about a strong turnout for a comic con, but not being ready for overcrowding can really hurt business. They should have hired some retail experts from big chain stores that have to deal with black friday every year, we are used to handling crowds that are too large for the amount of space we have and very aware of the problem of angry customers not spending money like happy customers. Or maybe they did and just were not ready for that crowd turnout, because there are just as many big retailers that screw up black friday too.
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02-26-2006, 10:47 AM
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#6 | |
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Quote:
The con was sharing the Javits center with another convention, unfortunately. If it had had the entire building, things might have worked out better. |
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02-26-2006, 10:49 AM
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#7 | |
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Quote:
Didn't know that. Hopefully Reed will be able to get the whole darn thing next year. Perhaps even more importantly, hopefully that would be enough...  |
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02-26-2006, 10:53 AM
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#8 |
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It is a shame that these problems happened, BUT....
turn it around.... look at the amount of interest in people attending! That's a healthy sign not only for the NY Comic Con, but the Comic Industry in general. The NY Comic Con now has a year to make it better...and they can. Let's give them a year to improve before we bash them too much. Who knew they'd have this much interest? It was definitely a problem, but let's focus on the challenge of making it better rather than grumbling. There's always problems like this in an event's first year. |
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02-26-2006, 10:57 AM
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#9 |
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In retrospect, I'm really glad I decided not to go. The simple fact that the organizers of these conventions (not just Reed) continually underestimate the number of attenddees, as well as the amount of floor space needed is pathetic. Instead of overestimating the space they might possibly need, they always underestimate. While they think this might save them money, all the ill-will it engenders is not good for business.
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02-26-2006, 11:01 AM
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#10 | |
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Quote:
They had plenty of data to know how much interest there would be. All they needed to do was look at the attendence from every other con in th country and couple that with the fact that NY hasn't had a major con in 15 years. The fact that next year's date is already set means they already know how much floorspace they will have. If they will be sharing space again, there will definitely be problems. I also don't understand why February was chosen for a NY con. It would make much more sense to have it anytime between April and October, just for weather considerations. |
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02-26-2006, 11:02 AM
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#11 |
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those pictures dont do it justice
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02-26-2006, 11:03 AM
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#12 |
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That was the longest line I've evers seen in my life, honest. We were lucky we got the tickets on the net and by the time we found the end of the line (more difficult than it sounds) we were approached by members of the staff who gave us our badges.
The thing is, after that we went to a couple of conferences and when we came out, all the people who were waiting for a ticket now were waiting to get into the con, so we had to cue twice. Several members of the staff and security guys were way too nervous, shouting at people and stuff. Very unpleasant. As one of the staff girls put it "nobody knows anything" After noon, though, things went smoother and in the end I had a good time. I got to see Kevin Simth (hilarious!), my Aztek back issues, a Cthulhu toy, and autographs for my girlfriend, so at the end of the day I went home as a happy geek.  |
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02-26-2006, 11:08 AM
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#13 |
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jeez, that sounds even worse than I thought. Didn't Wondercon sell out too? Guess con attendence is up this year.
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02-26-2006, 11:09 AM
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#14 |
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Rags Morales had trouble getting back to the DC booth for a signing sessions, thats how bad it was. the DC booth was right at the enterance
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02-26-2006, 11:10 AM
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#15 |
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I froze my nuts off waiting outside @ 8:45 but I feel bad for the people who didn't get in.
That's just ________. After spending $80 for a train ticket and $35 to get in, if it was all for naught then I would have been pissed beyond belief. I got to meet quite a few artists but it was difficult to travel around and it was hot in there. Too many people, not enough room and outside conditions didn't help much. Hopefully, they'll learn from this and make adjustments for next year. If anyone goes... |
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02-26-2006, 11:12 AM
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#16 | |
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Re: NYCC: CROWDED OUT AT THE CON
Quote:
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02-26-2006, 11:16 AM
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#17 |
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This sounded pretty bad and made me very happy that I decided NOT to go, but to see how it was from afar and then likely go next year. I'll keep a watch for possible improvements like the folks above my post were talking about.
It seems that the Florida MegaCon people likely had the better time, all things concerned. The odd thing is, I thought that Wizard Philly was bad in terms of early morning line waits and entrance...this report makes THAT stuff seemingly bearable. Hopefully things'll work out though...I'd love nothing more than a huge East Coast con to complement the SD one. |
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02-26-2006, 11:18 AM
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#18 |
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jawa was talkin with terry austin and there were talks that they were going to double the size of the floor next year
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02-26-2006, 11:18 AM
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#19 |
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I was so outraged! I wasted 25 dollars on this garbage. I won't even bother to go back. The Javitz center cannot hold that type of show. And whoever planned this just simply did a putrid job. Not to mention the Pigs were the biggest problem. I don't know why the @#$% there need to be so many @#$%ing COPS, and not just COPS, but they seemed to pick the biggest of the @#$%^ COPS, in a place like that. I doubt a terrorist would blow up a comic convention. But that wasnt a convention, that was a poorly planned failure. All they did was piss off and turn off a lot of people from any potential future new york comic cons with the way they handled the whole thing.
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02-26-2006, 11:36 AM
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#20 |
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It was awful. I'm leaving to go back there today, since I was stupid enough to boy two VIP tickets for my wife and I.
Oh, that's a really great thing, as I and several other people who bought VIP tickets learned. The point of those VIP tickets was so you didn't have to wait in line, etc. Only problem was that all you did was wait in line, as no one honored the concept of the VIP tickets. So about 200 people were completey ripped off by the Con. So, it didn't matter if you had the regular weekend pass, just bought a ticket that day, or if you had the VIP tickets. First come, first serve and get in back of the line. Oh, and the panels weren't properly monitored either. So if you didn't have a ticket or a pass, you could attend the panels. |
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02-26-2006, 11:49 AM
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#21 |
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that so amazing!!! i was just so blown away by how many people showed up and i'm just a comic fan! this is great for comics the more people the better mabe next year it will be bigger! i was happy to get in after such a long wait on line. but i was so happy just looking around and seing all the fans buying and loving it. this is GREAt but it sucks for those who can't get in but next year it has to be even bigger!
Last edited by IronWolf : 02-26-2006 at 08:39 PM. |
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02-26-2006, 12:03 PM
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#22 |
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I understand that Neal Adams wasn't able to leaave the con floor for his signing as he was told that he would have to stand in line to get back in!
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02-26-2006, 12:11 PM
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#23 |
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I had a blast at Megacon this weekend. It's sad to hear that this many problems happened at the NY Comic Con... but hey, those of us down here are kinda happy about it.
A lot of us were not happy when we heard the NY Comic Con was going on the same weekend as our big con... Karma maybe? Who knows. It's nice to see the tremendous interest for the NY Con is there. That's always a plus. |
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02-26-2006, 12:15 PM
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#24 |
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I really don't know what those idiots who organized the convention were thinking. When I got there I thought they would use the whole center and it is still a small venue when all things are considered and based on the fact that it is in New York @#$%ing city... New York city... There are a lot of people there, a WHOLE LOT, and a whole lot of people with different interests including a whole lot of people who buy comicbooks!!! Marvel and DC are there!!!! What makes them think a San Diego Comic Con, or Wizard World Chicago is going to outdraw this???
Priceless Imbeciles... Alan Moore was right and this industry is simply run by a bunch of baffoons who only think about immidiate short term sales. They were so afraid to lose money that they actually lost more. Think about all the money they lost with all the angry people and I mean there were a whole lot of them that couldnt get in, and the ones that were in but couldnt even make it to the booths they wanted to, and the ones who were too annoyed with the conditions and decided to leave early, like myself. And the people who would have gone today, because a lot of people work saturdays, and cant get in, because they have to let in the people who couldnt get in yesterday, who might as well probably not show up anyway if they are really annoyed from yesterday. Think about all that money they lost not only this weekend but in future conventions with people that will never go back because of the terrible experience. And those people need to train their Comic Con Staff better, they might as well have hired anyone off the street who hadnt a f@#$ing clue about what was going on in there. I am so mad!!!! Last edited by Bluewave : 02-26-2006 at 12:19 PM. |
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02-26-2006, 12:17 PM
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#25 |
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I made it in on Saturday, but it was like a wild goose chase in that cluster **ck to find a person who worked there that knew what they were doing. I went upstairs, downstairs, around the corner, back down stairs, turned away cause i didnt have a braclet even tho i showed my pre paid ticket pages etc... Till i finaly found some smuck way on the other side of the building who was scanning pages and handing out bracelets. Got it and then i walked into that hell hole.
It was soooooooooo crowded that vendors at the end isle had their stuff knocked all over the place. It was shoulder to shoulder and just a horrible experiance. You would think they would have gotten it held at a bigger place or opened it or something. Never again i can say that much, i am sticking with WWPhilly for now on. Edit: I would never have bothered to go in if it wasnt for Udon showing up, but after i hit their both i went and hit the train back to NJ. Last edited by Nate28 : 02-26-2006 at 12:19 PM. |
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