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.