Colts And Convention Centers:
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Posted by al_kesselring

The Indianapolis Colts are due to play in Dayton Ohio on Sunday, August 7th.   And did anyone look at the Indianapolis Convention Center Web site?  They do not list Gencon............They list the college park church luncheon with a whopping total of 50 attendees, but they don't list Gencon........?........

 

Posted by brotherbock

They moved the Con. Didn't you hear?

It was this last weekend. Man, what a blast!

Posted by jedikitty

I see it on there !

Thu Aug 4 - Sun Aug 7 2016
Gen Con The Best Four Days in Gaming

Posted by al_kesselring

I see where the Indianapolis Convention Center added Gencon to their event list............................
 
Still, I missed last weekend's unadvertised Gencon the prequel.......................
 
Sigh........................

If only I had known.......................oh woe is me..................woe is me.....................

Posted by del_grande al_kesselring

al_kesselring wrote:
The Indianapolis Colts are due to play in Dayton Ohio on Sunday, August 7th.
I assume you mean Canton, Ohio, in the annual NFL Hall of Fame Game.

2017 is when they need to pay close attention, since GenCon is scheduled to take place during week 2 of the NFL preseason (and I assume the Drum Corps International World Championships will be held there the previous week).

EDIT: Note that playing the first two full preseason weekends away isn't unheard of; this year, Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, New Orleans, Oakland, and Tampa Bay all do it.
 

Posted by brotherbock

GC has taken place during a home preseason weekend before. Hasn't been any big deal. Will only be worse for the Colts fans trying to stay the night now. 

Posted by armadilloal

It has, but GenCon has started expanding into Lucas Oil this year.  That could be a problem if the Colts want to play a home game on that weekend, but I see no reason they wouldn't work together in future years to stay away from each other.

Posted by brotherbock

I doubt the Colts are going to let GC do anything to the dome that would prohibit the Colts from playing there with minimal work. In other words, I don't think GC's use of the dome will get in the Colts way--the dome would be blocked off for the Colts game, including pre and post game stuff, and then usable by GC again afterwards. 

Posted by donaldbain

There are exhibit halls in the stadium.  I don't think anything will be on the field.

http://www.lucasoilstadium.com/exhibitors/getting-around-los-meeting-spaces.aspx

Posted by brotherbock donaldbain

donaldbain wrote:
There are exhibit halls in the stadium.  I don't think anything will be on the field.
http://www.lucasoilstadium.com/exhibitors/getting-around-los-meeting-spaces.aspx

Agreed. But the hallways and surrounding areas, including bathrooms, will need to be blocked off for game attendees during the game, and just before and after. 

But that won't be that big of a deal for GC. They'll just not use those areas that day. 

Posted by keithbradburn

I doubt that, if there was a Colts game during Gen Con, that Gen Con would have access to LOS at all.  Currently everything from the connecting tunel that runs under South Street to the Exhibit Halls and Conference rooms are used during game day and the day before for setup.  

Posted by aldctjoc

Why should we worry about scheduling? The Colts play preseason away games too; as armadilloal pointed out, it's probably not too problematic to simply schedule that weekend to be one of the games the Colts play on the road. Unlike the regular season where there's a set league formula (i.e. vs. your division's members twice a year, ever team in one other division within the conference, etc.), the preaseason is left up to the individual franchises to negotiate amongst themselves with only loose guidelines to follow (for example: can't play anyone outside the NFL). So it should just be a matter of the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium getting together to map things out. 

Posted by brotherbock aldctjoc

aldctjoc wrote:
Why should we worry about scheduling? The Colts play preseason away games too; as armadilloal pointed out, it's probably not too problematic to simply schedule that weekend to be one of the games the Colts play on the road. Unlike the regular season where there's a set league formula (i.e. vs. your division's members twice a year, ever team in one other division within the conference, etc.), the preaseason is left up to the individual franchises to negotiate amongst themselves with only loose guidelines to follow (for example: can't play anyone outside the NFL). So it should just be a matter of the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium getting together to map things out. 

I'm simply super skeptical that the Colts and the NFL are going to be trying to schedule their preseason games by taking conventions into account. Particularly since they have the option of simply saying that they need their own dome that weekend, and that's the way it is. 

Again, there have been home games during GenCon when the con center was in use. The only difference now seems to be blocking off the parts of the dome needed for the game for only those times when they are needed. The rest of Gencon would go on as planned. Some events would be in the dome on some days, and not on others. 

Posted by aldctjoc brotherbock

brotherbock wrote:
aldctjoc wrote:
Why should we worry about scheduling? The Colts play preseason away games too; as armadilloal pointed out, it's probably not too problematic to simply schedule that weekend to be one of the games the Colts play on the road. Unlike the regular season where there's a set league formula (i.e. vs. your division's members twice a year, ever team in one other division within the conference, etc.), the preaseason is left up to the individual franchises to negotiate amongst themselves with only loose guidelines to follow (for example: can't play anyone outside the NFL). So it should just be a matter of the Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium getting together to map things out. 

I'm simply super skeptical that the Colts and the NFL are going to be trying to schedule their preseason games by taking conventions into account. Particularly since they have the option of simply saying that they need their own dome that weekend, and that's the way it is. Again, there have been home games during GenCon when the con center was in use. The only difference now seems to be blocking off the parts of the dome needed for the game for only those times when they are needed. The rest of Gencon would go on as planned. Some events would be in the dome on some days, and not on others. 

I don't think I composed my post very well, since I agree that other conventions would be of zero concern to the league, and that the Colts can easily do the 800lb gorilla thing ("Sits wherever it wants") if they felt like it. Rather, what I was getting at was:

  1. Lucas Oil Stadium is it's own entity, managed by the Capital Improvement Board, who also manages the Convention Center (sorry if you already knew that, but others here may not). They (the CIB) have an interest in doing their best to keep conventions happy. Especially one of the largest ones the ICC has ever landed. They're never going to tell the Colts "No, you can't have that weekend", but at the same time it's not like they'll have no ability whatsoever to try and influence things.
  2. The NFL franchises handle their own preseason scheduling - which is a really key point in all of this - and the NFL generally stays out of it (minus urging teams to keep up marquee preseason Monday Night matchups). So the team wouldn't be as hamstrung by the league in preseason scheduling as they would in the regular season.
  3. The Colts generally haven't been poor community partners. They of course are not ever going to do anything that loses them money, but given that they'd have to play preseason road games anyway - and again, given that they aren't restricted by the league's regular season formula at that point - they'd be presented with a choice to be welcoming or be strict. Why not at least listen? For preseason games, I don't see the franchise giving a damn if a certain weekend was an away game as long as it didn't take away from the number of home games they want to play.

So yeah, I shouldn't have implied that the Colts would have to work around GenCon. Bad writing on my part. Rather, I wanted to get across that the flexibility to try and work the schedule isn't missing. And that it would be more than just waiting around for the Colts to publish their schedule. The venue and it's management would a say in things as well.

Posted by rogersba

Take a look here:
http://www.lucasoilstadium.com/exhibitors/getting-around-los-meeting-spaces.aspx

I'm pretty sure Gen Con is going to used the spaces on the event level, primarily the halls and rooms on the north side (based on space sizes in the press releases). When I've attended Colts games, most people enter on Street level, one floor up. If they have seats at the 100 level, they walk into the entry plaza, which is above the meeting halls, then walk down into their seats.

The CIB planned for simultaneous access. I imagine that if there is a year with a conflict, there may be restrictions or partitioning of the underground tunnel, but both events can take place. It would be a lot like when the RCA Dome field was right across the hall from the TCG room and both were in use. They put up some ropes and had some guards there to make sure you didn't accidentally use the field doors on that day.

If there really is an unresolvable conflict, an event blocking a pro game on the schedule is not unprecedented. In Chicago, the Bulls and Blackhawks have 2-week road trips while the Ringling Brothers circus uses the United Center. Banker's Life Fieldhouse in Indy has some similar constraints.

Posted by marimaccadmin

Yes, looking at that map, Gen Con is using event level space this year. True Dungeon will be in Exhibit Halls 1 and 2, and the anime/animation program will be in meeting rooms 1-12.

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

Posted by brumcg aldctjoc

aldctjoc wrote:The NFL franchises handle their own preseason scheduling - which is a really key point in all of this - and the NFL generally stays out of it

It sounds like it doesn't matter since we're talking about the event level space, but the NFL does schedule all preseason games with input from the teams.

The NFL hasn't cared about Gen Con in the past, I doubt they would in the future.

Posted by brotherbock aldctjoc

aldctjoc wrote:
 
So yeah, I shouldn't have implied that the Colts would have to work around GenCon. Bad writing on my part. Rather, I wanted to get across that the flexibility to try and work the schedule isn't missing. And that it would be more than just waiting around for the Colts to publish their schedule. The venue and it's management would a say in things as well.

Gotcha :) And that makes some sense. I'm just instinctively skeptical about corporations acting decently when they don't have to--the larger the corp, the more skeptical.

But I know very little about how the Colts treat the community, so maybe they'll act that way.

The thing is--Gen Con gets scheduled years out, while Preseason schedules are year to year. So 'working with' Gen Con could only amount to the Colts finding out when Gen Con is in town, and then either having a game that weekend, or not. There is no ability for the Colts to ask Gen Con "how about you pick a different week this year, because we did last year". And when Gen Con goes to make its own schedule and book it with the Con center, the Colts will have no idea what weeks are good or bad for them.

Posted by aaronmlopez

The NFL works around events already scheduled at/around the NFL stadiums. So Gen Con would never face a situation where the game could interfere with it. 

This is planned out well in advance

 

Posted by brotherbock aaronmlopez

aaronmlopez wrote:
The NFL works around events already scheduled at/around the NFL stadiums. So Gen Con would never face a situation where the game could interfere with it. 
This is planned out well in advance
 

Well I'm not sure about the 'no interference at all' guarantee. Gen Con and an Indy home game could still be scheduled at the same time. And if that was the case, it could occur in the future that both are trying to use a particular part of the building at the same time. I'm not sure that GC has reserved all the particular rooms they'll be using when they book years in advance to be at the Con center. I could easily see a time when a given area is open to Gen Con for Thursday and Friday, but not Saturday and Sunday, for example. 

This is definitely true of hotel space, and I don't know why it could never happen in the Con area. But my claim is that Gen Con, if that happens, would simply adapt. Don't put True Dungeon in an area that won't make it available for Saturday and Sunday, for example :)

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