That's it in a nutshell. I've had people tell me that the Midwest Gaming Classic will replace Expo someday but I don't agree at all. While we consider it a trade show, it's not one driven by the traditional industry like Expo is. I have no intention of trying to do what Mike does.

The Texas show serves the collector market, which has grown exponentially in the past ten years. The industry side of pinball has remained similar if not shrank in those years.

It's hard to compare.

Again, I really think it has to do with the goal of the shows.

Chicago actually has more than one show that features pinball, just in different ways that aren't as hobby friendly, which is why no one on here really talks about them.

I do think that absolutely someone could start another show in the Chicago area, but I think that timing it out would be difficult. It would NOT make sense to run on the same weekend as Expo or near it. Expo will continue to do just fine with it's industry group that will continue to support it. It would be difficult to run in the winter because it's winter. I would be surprised if they ran around this time because of the MGC up north here. So, you're stuck with summer, during which there are a lot of other shows in other parts of the show vying for attention.

Expo is still important to the industry to make announcements at as I know of a number of operators who look around that time to start deciding where their money is going to go for the next year. That part isn't going to change with a hobby-centered show starting. Besides that, the timing of the shows is a big part of their announcements - If TPF was after a couple of the other large shows, I imagine they would have had less announced there. But, seeing as how TPF basically kicks off the "pinball show season", it makes sense that a bunch of big announcements happen there, so those companies can then decide how to best showcase what they do after that point.

I can definitely see a hobby show rising in the Chicago area, but I don't see it "competing" with Expo based on the specific niche Expo serves.

But that's the thing - cross pollination only works if you are on the same weekend. So sure, you could get some extra attendance out of that potentially, but...

Expo is a known quantity. The industry will still go there. So, that limits your new games. Then, vendors already know what to expect of Expo, so they probably still go there. Well, we can compete on game bringers - let's say that you get half of the people that had been going to Expo to show up with machines, and another half that won't bring games to Expo to show up - which, for a first year would be quite the showing.

You still end up with the only thing to compete with Expo being a game room. You may get a few more attendees, but I don't think it would be a huge show right away.

If you run the show 5 months apart from it or whatever, you can potentially convince the industry to come, maybe entice a few vendors to come, and get people to bring out their games. You would lose out on a portion of the attendees that may go to both shows, but you would have a much more well rounded show.

Because most of us have to figure out dates for our convention by picking one or two because that is all that is available for our particular times, and it's impossible to worry that a show across the country might be on the same day as yours. It sucks for the few people and vendors who would like to make more shows, but the reality of the situation is that if two shows are running on the same weekend but are 1000 miles apart, they really aren't affecting each other much.

We're running on the same dates as PAPA this year - next weekend. I can't imagine either of our shows will affect the other materially.