Wizard World Con Rumours 0

[1Cool]

Wizard World Con Rumours

I talked to someone who set up last week at the Cleveland Wizard show and they heard from a rep at Wizard that they are switching up their business model.  Instead of charging $45 a ticket they will be charging $25 but having twice as many comic cons on a smaller scale.  Not sure if I 100% believe this info is correct since it seems Wizard lost their shirt by expanding into a bunch of smaller markets but maybe the price drop will help make it a success.  Maybe they plan on keeping cost down by locking more minor celebrities in for multi con packages at good prices.  Anyone else hear anything close to this?

Edited March 21, 2017 by 1Cool

[revat]

I haven't heard anything about this, but I would advise them against it if I could.  I'd go the other way, just 1 blockbuster show per month with low-ish prices but super guests with PRICEY VIP options.  Keep only your best people putting all their efforts and resources into these GREAT shows, and then if THOSE do great, then maybe go to 13 or 14 per year, but probably never more than 15 shows per year.  It appears part of their philosophy appears to want to hit untapped markets, but a lot of times those cities have people with less disposable income and its more expensive or difficult for the best guests to travel there.  Maybe six permanent huge markets, and six rotating smaller/mid markets. 

There's a lot to weigh, and I haven't really seen any evidence that they're running effective financial forecasting models, which most public companies probably should.

 

[Doktor]

They also need to NOT just go to the next city down the road for the following month's show. It basically tells customers "don't bother coming to this city 300 miles away. Wait a month & we'll be only 30 miles away". Double dipping into a similar target demographic can work if you spread out how frequently you dip into that potential customer base. Yes, it's a lot more cost effective to set up in Chicago and then set up in Indy a month later and set up in Columbus the next month & then Pittsburgh the following month, but the Indy people won't come to Chicago if they know they just gotta wait another month or if they DO come to Chicago, they won't have the $$ saved up to actually spend anything of note when the show gets to Indy the following month. A big show can draw in attendees from a few hundred miles, but it won't if those attendees will just wait a month for the show to get closer. They can leapfrog cities & then hit the skipped city on the way back. But doing them one after another kills the market for at least some of those shows.

[valiantman]

6 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Wizard World Con Rumours

I talked to someone who set up last week at the Cleveland Wizard show and they heard from a rep at Wizard that they are switching up their business model.  Instead of charging $45 a ticket they will be charging $25 but having twice as many comic cons on a smaller scale.  Not sure if I 100% believe this info is correct since it seems Wizard lost their shirt by expanding into a bunch of smaller markets but maybe the price drop will help make it a success.  Maybe they plan on keeping cost down by locking more minor celebrities in for multi con packages at good prices.  Anyone else hear anything close to this?

Seems like a weird business model.

If a convention has 60,000 people with $45 tickets, that's $2,700,000.

If you have two smaller conventions with $25 tickets that can hold 40,000 people each... you make $2,000,000. 

More conventions, more locations, more tickets sold... less money.

[1Cool]

3 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Seems like a weird business model.

If a convention has 60,000 people with $45 tickets, that's $2,700,000.

If you have two smaller conventions with $25 tickets that can hold 40,000 people each... you make $2,000,000. 

More conventions, more locations, more tickets sold... less money.

Based on Wizard stock it's really tough to sell 60,000 tickets at $45 so I guess they are thinking it may be easier to sell $25 to a bunch of people (probably correct).  I'd have gone last weekend if tickets were $25 but could not justify the $50 price tag even with it only being a 15 minute drive.

[Bird]

$45/day is silly money; I agree that I would go to WW Philly more often if it was $25 to get in. I am not too keen on that thing they sometimes do on Pier 81 or wherever in NYC - it is a hideous comic con, from the cold hard concrete floors to the cold windswept rooms but I would at least consider it at $20-$25/day. (OT: back in the day Pier 84 was one of the best places to see concerts; I could name the shows I went to there and could get to 25 and still miss a bunch).

Edited March 21, 2017 by Bird