I thought the intial point of this debate was Expo has been delayed for the simple fact that it was too expensive to get up and running. Of course retailers are going to make money, my point is that the organisers probably won't. One location wanted $30k up front to stage Expo. You can't tell me that an ORGANISER is going to outlay that amount of money before a ticket is sold for a pinball expo. Is the organiser going to get all the retailers there when he has to ask big bucks for a stall? I doubt it. Perhaps ask Mark what it would cost to man a stall at Expo for four days - hire a truck, load it up full of machines and parts, get it to Sydney, set up the stall....there's at least two days, four days at Expo for which you would need several staff, travel allowance i.e. food, drink, accomodation and another day or two back, then factor in time lost whilst the staff are at expo and not repairing or preparing machines. For Mark it might work out, for a small operator the likes of Greg it wouldn't be worth it. So in the end, you don't get all of the industry there.
To compare the BIA Boat Show to a pinball expo is nonsense. As has been mentioned we are talking about two totally different industries. Would a pinball expo attract 100's of thousands of visitors - not a chance. To secure space at a boat show costs $100's of thousands of dollars, especially for the size of a stand Shorty (RIP) puts together. Most retailers do well out of it with orders but that isn't the argument.
For those of us that did go to last years expo, did you go to look at new machines or did you for the social side of things and meet blokes you had chatted to on the forum/s - for me it was both. $5 to get in the door, chat all day and night with a good bunch of blokes and it was a great weekend that only cost several hundred bucks with airfares and accomodation.
We can't lose sight of the fact we are a small group of enthusiasts and any astute business man would be able to see that as an ORGANISER, at this point in time, the figures simply don't stack up to stage a top end, glitz and glamour pinball expo, which is what the guys were trying to achieve this time around. Personally I'd be stoked with another event like last year's one and if it is the difference between the event happening and not happening, then let's have an auction, open it up to everyone to put up machines for auction (I think that is where it fell down last year), at the end of the day, I don't have to bid on anything if I don't want to, I don't even have to be there for it.
BTW, gotta applaud Retropin for telling it how it is....good post mate. Guys like Michael & Ryan are still getting shit canned but still no-one has stepped up to the plate to help as you said.
