Originally posted by: JackLucas
In any event, LFL can kiss my ass for puting this thing in LA. I went to the first three Celebrations and always loved the fact that they were centrally located. I think they have shot themselves in the foot judging by how many people are bitching about the location. I would LOVE to get a look at their pre-registrations compared to CII and CIII in Indy. (And by the way, I am not an Indy homer, I live in Nebraska. And I have been to LA a few times and can say that I think it is a HORRIBLE location for this event just on atmosphere alone.) Indy was awesome, as was Denver (though admittedly a little small for the event).
Celebration 1 was not centrally located, not by any means. Granted Indy was more centrally located (by population, not by geography) it was still out of reach for most people on the west coast.
How is LA a more horrible location than Indy? Indy was small. For C2, someone had the brilliant idea that they wouldn't need the whole convention center (half was taken up by some marathon). For C3, even with the whole convention center, it was still nuts, with lines everywhere. From what I heard (I volunteered, so I didn't have to experience any of this) it was WORSE at C3 than it was at C2, just to get in the door, nevermind getting into the store.
As for the atmosphere in LA, what's wrong with it? Universal Studios is fairly close by, as is Disneyland and Knott's. A lot of people are flying in for the whole week just so they can go to the theme parks while they're in town. All Indy had was a downtown district and some movie theaters. As far as I know, no one went to the baseball stadium to see any games (assuming there were any games while it was going on).
Denver was not only small, but it was almost entirely outdoors, which ruined the experience for a lot of fans and a lot of dealers. It rained for 2.5 days! C1 was 3 days long! Standing out in the cold rain, trying to keep dry was anything but awesome. Yeah, it was cool to see that many star wars fans in one spot, but other than that, it was probably the worst experience I've ever had at a convention. It took them 3 days to realize they needed separate lines for all the celebs that were appearing in each tent. About the only thing, as far as I remember, that they did right was the store. I don't remember there being a long line and I know I didn't get up at the butt crack of dawn to get there.
The Celebrations, IMHO, have been nothing but successive failures. Sure, each one gets more and more fans, but each one seems to have worse crowd problems than the last with no one doing anything to help it. At C2, they fixed the outdoor problem (it was indoors). At C3, they claimed that having the whole center would fix the crowd problem. Oopsy, that didn't work, mostly because the crowd problem comes from the store. At C4, the store will be open 24/7, which will hopefully alleviate the crowds. I don't plan on going for more than 1 day though, so it doesn't really matter.
It's kind of funny. I had been very vocal about getting Celebration in LA and now I'm only going for maybe 1 day (I want all days at C1-3). Of course, if it didn't cost so blasted much to go, I'd get a ticket for all days and plan on going. As it is, I've been really put off by the cost alone.
Well, enough ranting from me. I just get tired of hearing how LA sucks and it should stay in Indy (which, even with the expansion, was not big enough). I'm willing to bet just as many people bitched about Indy for C1 and C2 as are bitching about it being in LA. People came from all over the world to go to Indy, they'll do the same to go to LA. 