TekkoshoCon (Pittsburgh, Houston, Monroe: centers, airport, train)

[greg42]

No way anyone's building a 1000-room hotel. I think they'd be happy with half that. Remember, the convention center is not as big as the ones where they have 1000-room hotels, plus there is an existing 500/600-room hotel attached already.

I think this was the scenario a few years ago in fact. There was a proposal for a hotel at I think 400 rooms, and the SEA (I think them) was holding out for 500 and turned them down.

I think the biggest convention they've run here is something like the NRA, which ran to about 30,000 overall if I remember right (just going on memory, not search).

[MathmanMathman]

True, those involved know what is doable. But you'd think another hotel right beside DLL could sell out 1,000 rooms. I mean for a 10,000 attendee event, a 1,000 room hotel, the Westin, and Courtyard are as good as booked.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by greg42

No way anyone's building a 1000-room hotel. I think they'd be happy with half that. Remember, the convention center is not as big as the ones where they have 1000-room hotels, plus there is an existing 500/600-room hotel attached already.

I think this was the scenario a few years ago in fact. There was a proposal for a hotel at I think 400 rooms, and the SEA (I think them) was holding out for 500 and turned them down.

I think the biggest convention they've run here is something like the NRA, which ran to about 30,000 overall if I remember right (just going on memory, not search).

As a matter of fact, there was an old post of yours

Not only that, the lack of more hotel space in the immediate vicinity is keeping the convention from getting larger. Registration dropped way off in May when the hotels got full. They might be able to get more. The estimate I was hearing this morning is 4500. That's not a huge convention as conventions go (not like the NRA one or anything) but it's still a sizable one for people only staying downtown. And that number has grown since earlier Anthrocons for sure.

//www.city-data.com/forum/pitts...omorrow-5.html

1,000 might be pushing it but proximity to DLL, especially if connected with a "gerbil tube" should fill the hotel.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

True, those involved know what is doable. But you'd think another hotel right beside DLL could sell out 1,000 rooms. I mean for a 10,000 attendee event, a 1,000 room hotel, the Westin, and Courtyard are as good as booked.

Chicken and egg.

As it stands, such a hotel would be empty WAY too much of the time, or really what it would do is make most of the hotels in town emptier most of the time.

Maybe, just maybe if you build it, there could be more conventions of that size. But it's a helluva gamble.

Regarding my old post, yes, it still stands. Just not 1000 rooms at once. Not unless you want to wreck other hotels in the process anyway. One of the big problems is the other really large hotel (Wyndham) is too far from the convention center.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by greg42

Chicken and egg.

As it stands, such a hotel would be empty WAY too much of the time, or really what it would do is make most of the hotels in town emptier most of the time.

Maybe, just maybe if you build it, there could be more conventions of that size. But it's a helluva gamble.

Regarding my old post, yes, it still stands. Just not 1000 rooms at once. Not unless you want to wreck other hotels in the process anyway.

That's one reason why I thought it would have been smarter to build the casino beside the DLL and make it a hotel/casino. Should fill some of the hotels rooms between conventions.

[sskink]

Regarding the DLCC, from what I recall, when first built there were thoughts they'd have another hotel nearby. Then that wasn't happening. Closing bookings for "brand name" mid-sized conventions Pittsburgh was targeting wasn't happening as much as needed.

Then the truck fell through the floor which led to some cancellations. Things were really bleak after that.

Soon thereafter, the strategy changed to targeting less well-known events in order to fill up the DLCC calendar. And it worked for the most part. The need for another attached hotel diminished.

Amusingly, the DLCC/hotel infrastructure was never built large enough to host our city's namesake tradeshow/conference, which is in Orlando now.

[shlewis]

Why the need for a massive new hotel? Isn't that Mariott close enough? There are so many hotels within walking distance that it sounds foolish to me that we'd -have- to have another massive hotel built. Look at the furries, they seem to do just fine with accommodations as they exist. Also, with the extension to the Northside opening up, there are other convenient hotel options there, too.

I can think of no better place for a sci-fi con than the DLCC - with it's futuristic setting and fantastic places for costumers to take photos.. Gosh, it'd be a hit if you could get some big names in the comics/entertainment world.

Pittsburgh is big for filming, imagine our own little SDCC, that'd be effinf awesome! (Okay, now I'm just going overboard.)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by shlewis

Why the need for a massive new hotel? Isn't that Mariott close enough? There are so many hotels within walking distance that it sounds foolish to me that we'd -have- to have another massive hotel built. Look at the furries, they seem to do just fine with accommodations as they exist. Also, with the extension to the Northside opening up, there are other convenient hotel options there, too.

That kind of walking distance just doesn't cut it for many conventions. They want x number of rooms within a block or two. The Wyndham Grand has 600-700 rooms but since it's "way" down at the Point it doesn't figure into some conventions' math at all.

Even Anthrocon which isn't very big in the grand scheme of things has this problem (as Mathman reminded me with my own post from last year). Most of the attendees apparently spend their whole stay within a couple blocks of the convention center, and it would grow larger if another hotel were built adjacent to the building.

[gg]

Sadly, the David Lawrence is a total rip off, due to teamsters crap. If you move anything in and out of the convention center a teamster has to be with you and they slap some crazy bills on you at the end of it all. I don't think people that go to such a convention would go along with that rip off stuff. Shame the Convention Center downtown has that stuff going on, but it does. Not sure why? Sure wish it was downtown, the strip or maybe Lawrenceville, but Monroeville? Yuck!

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Sadly, the David Lawrence is a total rip off, due to teamsters crap. If you move anything in and out of the convention center a teamster has to be with you and they slap some crazy bills on you at the end of it all. I don't think people that go to such a convention would go along with that rip off stuff. Shame the Convention Center downtown has that stuff going on, but it does. Not sure why? Sure wish it was downtown, the strip or maybe Lawrenceville, but Monroeville? Yuck!

Agree with that, a good friend of mine had an exhibit years ago at some housing convention. The BS fees he had to put up with due to the unions was nuts. He's never going back.