Wow....just saw the news that ReedPOP (promoters of NYCC, C2E2, PAX, and many, many others) has purchased MCM (promoters of London Comic Con, Birmingham Comic Con, etc.) for £17.5 million ($23 million).

ReedPOP Acquires UK's Largest Pop Culture Conventions

One Con to Rule Them All.

Bring on the pop culture and cosplay.

Now that most of the collectors and dealers have walked away they are welcome to it. At least all pretence of a comic, collector, memorabilia type show has finally ended.

I mentioned this a (non-collector) friend of mine last night and he asked "What do they get for £17.5 million?". I didn't have a good answer for him.

For £17.5 million, they get the show names, of course, and access to the "nearly 300,000 fans in the UK" but what else? MCM doesn't really own anything physical, do they (maybe some signage?). They don't have anything proprietary that I can think of. I guess it's just a heck of lot easier to buy an existing successful line of conventions then build them from scratch.

That might explain the lack of decent guests for the November show . Based on who is currently appearing I certainly will not be going , saving my money for the far superior Collectormania show next June.

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
I mentioned this a (non-collector) friend of mine last night and he asked "What do they get for £17.5 million?". I didn't have a good answer for him.

For £17.5 million, they get the show names, of course, and access to the "nearly 300,000 fans in the UK" but what else? MCM doesn't really own anything physical, do they (maybe some signage?). They don't have anything proprietary that I can think of. I guess it's just a heck of lot easier to buy an existing successful line of conventions then build them from scratch.

If you believe what the organisers say, they don't make a profit either

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
I mentioned this a (non-collector) friend of mine last night and he asked "What do they get for £17.5 million?". I didn't have a good answer for him.

For £17.5 million, they get the show names, of course, and access to the "nearly 300,000 fans in the UK" but what else? MCM doesn't really own anything physical, do they (maybe some signage?). They don't have anything proprietary that I can think of. I guess it's just a heck of lot easier to buy an existing successful line of conventions then build them from scratch.

Not being in that business I too can only guess what might be transferred that could be worth that kind of money if there is nothing physical. My only thought might be along the lines of licenses or vendor contracts or client lists held. Just eliminating other competition is sometimes a good motive. There is a lot of things that goes on behind the scenes in this event business. I know over at Javits, where the NY Comic Con is held, there is always union negotiations to go through for anything. So who knows what comes with the package, but if ReedPop paid it, they must have calculated that they were getting something that would be worth it at some point.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:
I mentioned this a (non-collector) friend of mine last night and he asked "What do they get for £17.5 million?". I didn't have a good answer for him.

For £17.5 million, they get the show names, of course, and access to the "nearly 300,000 fans in the UK" but what else? MCM doesn't really own anything physical, do they (maybe some signage?). They don't have anything proprietary that I can think of. I guess it's just a heck of lot easier to buy an existing successful line of conventions then build them from scratch.

If you believe what the organisers say, they don't make a profit either

That is the bit that always puzzles me - the profit element but perhaps the paid themselves a salary that matched any "profit"

300,000 people @ £25.00 per head, per year. Then there's a couple of thousand dealer tables @ £250.00 per year, then extra's.
That's probably £10 million per year.
It's interesting as the dealer chatter is about cutting back and shows not performing like they used to (1990's anyone?) - but these things are cyclical I guess.

I can understand people wanting to dress up as their favourite super-hero, Manga do-dad, or any other object, but to just walk around for a few hours, not buying anything, and paying £20 upwards for the privilege has always puzzled me. As a speculative customer, these hundreds of queue blockers really put me off going to some shows - Excel being the worst - because I hate dodging swords, oversized wings etc. just to get to a vendor.