July 29, 2010
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Comic-Con attendees should take a look at this article…
Read the whole thing, but these were the main points in regards to the problems of Comic-Con’s famous Hall-H…
* A bigger hall — Yeah, I know there isn’t one at the San Diego Convention Center, and that’s not really Comic-Con’s organizers’ fault, but there are just too many people for the space. It’s as simple and complicated as that. Maybe it’s time for the show to move to Las Vegas or Anaheim?
* More bathrooms.
* More places to eat — maybe sell concessions licenses to roving vendors, like a ball game.
* A courtyard: Maybe a pen that’s open to the outside air and sunshine would soothe people’s frazzled nerves a bit.
* Line organizational system — Comic-Con could give out a set number of tickets for the Hall in advance, and not force people to wait in line all day for a panel that they might not even get in.
* Clearing the hall between panels — If the hall was emptied between panels, each panel would be filled with only people who cared about that movie, and no one would be forced to sit through hours of trailers they don’t care about to see the one they did.
* Overflow room — If you’re in the back of the Hall, you’re basically watching the panels unfold on a video screen any way, so why not give people the option of watching the announcements from a separate hall? They’re filming the panels, so why not have a live feed to a lounge for people who want the news, but don’t care about seeing people in the flesh.
* Bigger seats –Those Comic-Con people are pretty fat, I’m just saying.That’s the gist of what that writer thinks are easy solutions that Comic-Con could do. Now I agree that Hall-H does indeed stand for “Hall-Hardcore.” I’ve been going to Hall-H since it first opened, and have talked with Comic-Con organizers throughout the years. So here’s a response to those suggestions…
- Bigger venue doesn’t solve the problem. A bigger place just means putting MORE people into the mix, which means more competition for line placement and seats. Anaheim does not have a comparable Gaslamp district for all the satellite Comic-Con related events, and the heat + alcohol in Las Vegas is questionable for this convention.
- Throughout the years, bathroom and food has been increasingly dealt with. There are actually more food vendors for Hall-H now than year’s past.
- Access to a courtyard (to see the sun) in between panels would be nice.
- Tickets for specific panels may seem like a great idea, however, the masquerade event on the Saturday night already requires a ticket, and there are STILL people waiting early in the morning for it. Also if there are approximately 8 Hall-H panels in a day, they’re going to have to figure out how to place 8 different lines that can hold 6,500 people in each one.
- The clearing the panel room idea was tried one year. It failed miserably. The only way this would work is if there was a gap of maybe about an hour in between panels to pull this off (let alone the multiple lines problem). This would mean that instead of something like 8 studio panels in one day, we’ll only get 4.
- Overflow room is a nice idea, but with limited space as it is, where’s the overflow room going to be located? Not only that, but the studios are going to have to sign off on the idea of their exclusive clips being shown in a separate area outside of Hall-H. The last time a Warner Bros Comic-Con trailer was leaked out to the public, the following year they purposefully showed NOTHING when they were promoting the Dark Knight to get even.
- I take it the last point is a simple joke, but just to make it clear, bigger seats = less people in Hall-H.
I’m going to go out and say that lowered capped attendance IS unfortunately the only solution to all the problems. However the costs to cover that will only be transferred to even higher prices to attend Comic-Con. Will you be willing to pay as much as $200 for a 4 day pass + preview night, if it means less crowds?…. I guess I would, but still…
