Quoted from Whysnow:

My biggest suggestion is to REMOVE THE FREE PLAY HALL FROM YOUR AUTHORITY.
This is the harsh reality in 2 parts ... Many people do not like supporting someone that has yelled at them and their friends in the past or recently. Many people are not interested in bring ing games to free play area because really all they are doing is helping increase profit for the promoters whom they do not like (because they yell at people and treat them like children).
You have started down this already but I suggest the next step. You obviously have too much on your hand to make everything better so focus where you are good, the vendor hall and seminars with industry.
Second reason to split off the free play area is it allows that group to cater to the people that now come to "the BEST industry show" with a main reason of playing games.
My suggestion is 100% removal of free play from your business model.
Step 1: find someone willing to take this area over
Step 2: let them do all the PR and relations with the collector community
Step 3: Set a REASONABLE price for the free play room and charge the person running it that amount. By reasonable, I mean exactly what the hotel charges you for that space. You still provide all the infrastructure like you have up till now (electric, etc...) You should remove the idea of straight line profit from the freeplay area. Freeplay area is a COST for your business model and OK to be a loss leader as its goal for you should be to bring in wallets
Step 4: they sell their own wristbands and provide their own security at the door
Step 5: They do what they want to make it a success. This includes setting their own hours, working with brawl on timing, their own incentive structure for games, etc...
My suggestion for whomever takes on the task of running the free play area is make all costs transparent and give ALL profits to charity (minus a small payment for you as token of your thanks and help). Get the community behind you!
I can assure you that if you make the freeplay area under the control of someone else and they run it for charity rather than for profit, then you will personally make even more money in coming years! (or atleast you will have the chance to make more money and even more people will come for the freeplay hall and likely pay for the vendor hall and seminars). Game count and quality can go up which will results in more heads for freeplay, and hence more bleed over of people that will also pay for the rest of the expo experience.
Also, whomever does the free play area... GET the OLYMPICS onsite!!!

Quoted from Whysnow:

It already is from what I can tell. Distinct subgroup of people coming mainly to play in freeplay hall. That is also the largest growing and incoming group to the hobby (Chicagoland has 5? barcades now). It is not hard to make free play separate like the seminars already are.

Quoted from Whysnow:

well obviously my suggestion is based on rectifying the empty room first. I can gaurentee that you would happily pay $10-15 per day to go in a jammed packed freeplay hall with great playing games. You do it every year for MGC, so I can only guess that you would also do it if expo freeplay was similar in quality.
granted the pricing needs to still make sense. What was cost now $25 for game and vendor hall 1day? I would suggest $15 for just free play, $15 for just vendor, or $25 for a combined pass.
If you have an awesome free play room (with proper PR and promotion) I can promise you that you will sell WAY more passes for the vendor hall!

Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

It should be. Isn't that what mosts other shows do?

Quoted from Whysnow:

Little market research...
Tom, would you bring a game for expo free play if it went to something like I am proposing?
For your efforts you get a FULL wristband for each day the game is there. Saturday 11pm till 2am aftrparty (maybe a thursday afternoon preparty? Something added if I had it my way). sweet prizes for best in show games and players choice games. All profits from free play go to charity.
More than 1 game and added incentive is showcash or something like that.

Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

That's why someone else needs to set up and organize the freeplay area. Remove Mike from that area completely.