New York Comic Con Roulette

So, for those of you who were hoping we were done with New York conventions taking place in the middle of winter, it ain’t over yet. The following was posted on Newsarama at their Blog@ blog, in a response about NYCC being the weekend of Passover this year:

The unfortunate reality is that these were the dates we were given at the Javits Center. Javits is unlike most places in that the demand for the space far outstrips the availability, so customers, such as NYCC, are left with little to no choice as to what dates we are given. To that point, I’ll announce here first that the show will be moving back to February next year – because we want to be in February? Not really. Quite simply, these are the only dates we can get next year.

See, this is the worst part about trying to run a convention in New York. There is only one real convention center in the largest city in the world. I don’t count Madison Square Garden as that is certainly more of an arena than anything else. This convention hall can only hold so much, and it is in the ass end of the borough, three or four avenues down from the nearest subway. They are planning to extend the 7 train so that at least one train will be down there, but that is still at least a few years away from completion. There have been proposals to expand the Javits Center in order to make room for more events, but is this truly what we need? I would love to have a place in the heart of the city devoted to a convention atmosphere, but New York is simply not built to support such an addition. And so our convention center remains where it is.

As for the Passover problem of this year, I doubt is it truly going to affect the majority of the crowd. While Passover is an important holiday for the Jewish faith, I know that my family celebrates it with a family gathering, and that is it. Religious Jews will have their hands full that weekend, but how many religious Jews were planning on attending the convention in the first place? Not to be insensitive, but I doubt the number was very high. As previously stated, next year this will not be a problem, so save your money and go elsewhere instead, or wait until 2009 if there is a conflict.

New York Anime Fest, the other event run by Reed Exhibitions, will be moving to September for its second year, avoiding the winter cold as well. But will this return back to December the year after that? All I know is that most conventions have a set month to rely on, and no New York convention will ever have that luxury. I love my city, but sometimes it can be quite the pain. Anybody got a spare plot of land they’re not using? It would be awesome if you did, and decided to build a convention hall on it. Anyone? Well, crap.