Posted on by misangela

Profits? Profits, anyone?

UPDATE: And ticket prices have spiked this year as well: $100 for walkup tickets. Keep in mind, the biggest Con in the US, Comic-Con, has tickets for $75. And it’s 10x better. Heh, yah, no money grabbing here…

After all the shit I’ve taken from DragonCon “volunteers” over the years, the lawsuit coming from Ed Kramer for HIS PROPER CUT OF THE PROFITS from that Con is very validating.

Kramer wants his share and he asserts that DragonCon has been underreporting its attendance numbers for years to avoid the Fire Marshal and to avoid having to pay him (Kramer) what his shares are actually worth. Well, that explains the Con’s refusal to admit to how many people attend, now, doesn’t it?

“Pat Henry initiated an aggressive, coercive, and nepotistic campaign,” the suit states, “to wrest control of the company away from its shareholders.” – Ed Kramer quote from AJC article

Henry says, “[…] he [Kramer] no longer has control over management decisions. That loss of control may be what motivated him to bring these baseless allegations.

“DragonCon has enjoyed great success since Mr. Kramer left, and we do not think a court will second guess the way that current management has run it.” from AJC 2/27/09

Oh, this Convention is not about money – nooooooo. Why pay anyone when you have a multimillion dollar business run by FREE labour? Why pay shareholders their fair share if you can KEEP IT? ::cackle::

I’ve been yelled at, stalked on LJ, called a cunt and generally maligned by DragonCon volunteers for my assertions that DragonCon is a FOR PROFIT convention and therefore should not use a 100% volunteer workforce. It should use the PROFITS from its convention to have a real staff that runs the thing properly.

Comic-Con International IS non-profit (notice the mission statement at the bottom) and pays a huge staff to run its three successful, smoothly efficient conventions, so, what does that say about Henry? He wants the Benjamins, DUH. The man is greedy, not stupid. I wish I had a multimillion dollar privately held business with no labour costs, no admin costs, no infrastructure costs (NO, big binders are NOT infrastructure!), no con staff costs, etc. Yes, it takes money to run the Con, but that’s what the dealer room should be paying for. Bad management aside, I still think there is plenty of cash coming in from this convention and Henry has no problem taking HIS share. Since no one is allowed to see the books (unlike a non-profit), we can only speculate about how much money is being “paid” to Henry. In any case,

the cultlike belief that DragonCon is NOT for profit can now DIE.

So, Con Slaves: Suck it long, suck it hard!

NOTE: we found out several years ago that Pat Henry bought a MOUNTAIN. A WHOLE MOUNTAIN with all the money he rakes in from DragonCon. Sickening. -A Feb 2016

You were wrong about this Convention and I was right all along. I shall be smug now.  ::giggle::

I decided to leave comments open in case there is more info about the lawsuit, not for the inevitable deluge of LJ Con Slaves telling me how much I suck and what a cunt I am.  I’ll delete all of the “OMG U R such a cunt! DragonCon is PERFECT!” comments. They are obviously irrelevant and I don’t want them clogging up my blog. Unless you have documented proof of something I’ve missed or other relevant info to the lawsuit, don’t bother. I get to be smug in exchange for all the shit I’ve taken over the years. Deal with it.

7 Replies to “Profits? Profits, anyone?”

  2. Oh, yah, $80 until May, $90 until July then $100 for walkup. Nah, Pat Henry isn’t out for MONEY.

    What a load of horse hockey. I just don’t know if it’s worth it anymore. I mean, that’s $200 for us to, uh, talk to our comics buddies? We may not attend at all this year, folks. Other than to abscond with Ted and Kelly and feed them Fox Bros, of course. Don’t need an overpriced badge for that, do we?

    Comic-Con in San Diego is only $75 for fuck’s sake!! And it’s about 10x better than DragonCon! Pat Henry really thinks his con is the SHIT, doesn’t he?

    ::shakes head in disgust::

  3. You’re missing the point that this is just another attempt by Kramer to delay his child molestation trial. For someone so eager to “prove his innocence”, he sure finds a lot of ways to delay getting in front of a jury. DragonCon deserves to go down if for no other reason than it protected Kramer’s sorry ass all these years when he was actively destroying any competing regional conventions, then turned a blind eye when he was arrested the FIRST time for molesting kids back in 1996. Henry & Kramer deserve each other.

  4. You are absolutely correct. We lament the severe lack of conventions around here – especially comic book related ones. Hell, even a spinoff convention couldn’t make it [ACE for those not local]!! That is what really sucks about D*Con. It completely absorbs every scrap of convention energy available and no one else can get anything going. This is why we spend gobs of money attending West Coast conventions – it’s where the comics are.

    We are attending HeroesCon in Charlotte in June – it’s the biggest comics and alt press con in the region – that I can find, anyway. Nice folks on the phone… We’ll see how the con is.

    I hope that this latest price bump will be the death knell for this Con. It really would be the best thing for the area.

    So, wanna start up a con? I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but D*Con must DIE first. What I’d love to do is boycott DragonCon to death then start again the right way: non-profit. But I can’t see that happening, really. Too many people getting their power trips from it every year…

  5. You may get your wish about D*Con finally meeting its Waterloo, if Kramer finally gets to trial on his molestation charges, though. A lot of ugly stuff is going to come out, damn near all of it taking place in a con hotel room at some point. And the fact that it was an “open secret” he was pedophile for years isn’t going to make anyone look terribly good. I wouldn’t be surprised if the parents of these kids didn’t sue the pants off D*Con in civil court, just like the parents of of a bunch of kids who were sexually abused by a high-ranking member of some kingdom or another are suing the SCA.

    Rumors coming from DC staffers had Kramer still being involved behind the scenes with the con as late as 2004. Pat Henry assured a lot of people that Kramer wasn’t involved with DC any more, but kind of neglected to mention he was getting $$$ from the convention every year as a shareholder/co-owner. That’s the kind of thing that comes back to bite you on the ass.

  6. ooOOoo

    I did not know that the molestation “allegedly” happened AT the Con!! Oopsie!

    Well, the parents *should* sue. It is bullshit for that to happen in the first place and more so that these assholes have been raking it in for YEARS knowing good and well that shit did happen.

    I did know that Kramer was still an owner and that Henry was doing his best to get rid of Kramer before the shit hit the fan. I’m glad he wasn’t able to accomplish that and now they can both go down with the ship.

    Serves ’em right.

    We will NOT be attending the Con this year. We’ll be around, but I refuse to pay $100 for a ticket to DragonCon, for fuck’s sake. We’re gonna hang out with our CA friends outside the con and be done with it – which is what we usually do anyway, so why pay?

    I get the distinct feeling that the sharp rise in ticket prices are Henry’s (and Kramer’s) attempt to get as much money as possible from this gig before it dies. I’m done giving those two money.

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