The only difficulty with that is not a lot of people know the real requirements. From a quick guess it’s around 250 rooms and a minimum of 30k square feet of space. But then it runs right into the other obvious factors of price. Because you could get that in Boston, but nobody could afford it. Then venue design comes in, because there is one in Marlboro, but the 47k trade hall is not attached to the hotel(5 min walk). It’s a difficult problem because there are not that many places that can handle a show like Pintastic at a price that could make it work.

I appreciate all the comments weather they are good or bad. We are making some good progress on finding a new venue. We are not moving to NH the population numbers are not in our favor. Boxboro is very unlikely due to the shortage of hotel rooms and feel of the surrounding area. When we move some things will change but I refuse to change to over all feel of the show. So that makes things more difficult. But rest assured we hear all the comments and complaints and are taking them into consideration.

That’s pretty much our starting point, but from an even simpler approach, even just if you think about other events you’ve gone to (pet shows, house shows, creepy doll shows, etc) and just share those locations it’s a starting point for us to look closer at the space. We have team members spread around New England, but even we’ve been digging up locations we hadn’t seen before so I’m sure we’re still missing some.

Two other big factors to consider are the electrical system, and ease of loading for a stream of dozens of people bringing in games and stuff for vending.

There were venues I had to cross off the list when starting the Saratoga show because of each of those items.

It has to be a HUGE headache to deal with for sure. Can you share any of the other possibilities with us? I know RI doesn't have anything decent that i can think of. My union has its kids Christmas party at the Crown Plaza in Warwick, its decent, but you're not going to get away with things you can in Sturbridge (outside alcohol, open containers outside, etc).

Not sure if it has ever been mentioned, but have you looked into Mohegan Sun Casino? I know, I know-it's expensive. Really expensive. But if properly managed, it will be a monster of a show! Went to Terrificon there and it was amazing. I've been to many, many other events there and it never disappoints.
To say it's clean is an understatement. The hotel is beyond Disney-quality as far as being clean. The bathrooms (there are MANY) are spotless and are usually manned. As far as infrastructure goes, it's perfect. I'm not too sure of this, but I know busses come & go for those who don't like the drive. That may be an option.
Will this increase admission price? You bet your ass it would, but all of the problems people are having with Sturbridge Host will not be present at MSC. Now, keep in mind there is a subset of people who will complain regardless of where the event is held. That's too bad. Let them complain.

I was going to suggest them as well, large size and clean.

I like the direction this is going but I think Mohegan Sun is a bit too far…

We got a price from crown plaza. But they require all vendors and anyone selling games to pay taxes on those sales. So anything in RI is the same deal. No go.

Yup got a price from them and toured it. Beautiful facility. But it’s very expensive to rent the facility and I was quoted $500 a night for my room block. Plus they can’t even host it on a weekend. Would need to be during the week. No go

That's exactly what I thought when I heard "Mohegan Sun". I hate to say this, but I'll take my mosquito laden, pot smelling, loud, not quite secure room for $120 over a flawless room for only $380 more. Per night. There are other hotels in the area (and Foxwoods is traditionally cheaper, I'm sure you checked with them already) that are cheaper, but not staying onsite is a toughie for many.

No one stays onsite at York or Allentown.

Different type of show. Those shows close at 9pm. Pintastic is 24hr

Plus no seminars. Pintastic is be best well-rounded show in the north east.

I love this idea that you either have to pay $500 a night for a “flawless” room you or have to stay in a condemned shithole in the summer with broken AC and roaches in charge of the dining facilities.

There could be a middle ground. Seems like most of the other pinball shows have figured it out. Let’s give them some time to find it and let us know.

Westin Hotel in Waltham, Ma seems like some middle ground price wise. Anyone check this out?

That's a good location. I've been there for work and they do have some good conference space. Although it might not be quite enough.

We are trying to stay away from having event space on multiple levels. But I will take a closer look

Yeah I saw the layout was not ideal. Sturbridge has that one hands down. But where there is this there may be others…

Wow, my union has its adult Christmas party there and our block was $150/night last year, on the weekend.

Ya but did they block off 200 rooms a night? That’s the issue. They can not accommodate us on a weekend. It’s there busy time.

somewhere in conn. would be nice

Sorry, was $179 with resort fee waived (was $150 prior), has to be over 200 rooms as there are well over 1500 possible members that could attend. They flip-flop from Mohegan and Foxwoods over the years.

They must pay big bucks for the venue. Plus food and beverage all gets worked into those numbers. With that many people they probably make money off them in other ways. It’s all a package deal. All I know is they can’t accommodate us on the weekend.

I’ve wanted to make a trip to pintastic , as I have been to shows all around the country, but given what I have read about the hotel in this thread, no way would I make the trip. While I have heard good things about the show, staying at a remote hotel does not make for a great show experience. If I want to get off my feet for an hour, or grab a quick snack, walking out to the parking lot, driving to a different hotel, driving back, looking for parking, — been there, done that. Just does not make for a great experience.

^^^^
This. NH is a tourist state and we know how to host here. Manchester is 1/2 hour drive from Logan and it even has the Manchester airport itself, which is comparable to a smaller degree to Logan.

It’s nothing like the Chicago area. There is plenty of parking and other decent hotels are all around. I spent about half for a better chain hotel that included food for breakfast and was less than 5 mixtures away. It doesn’t ruin your experience unless you need to be highly inebriated and unable to drive. There are plenty of tasty restaurants around and not much of a drive. The area is located in central Massachusetts and right off the turnpike. I hear about all the violence in Chicago, LA and NYC , but that wouldn’t stop me from visiting. Put your big boy pants on and join us next year.

There is a very nice Holiday Inn about a 5 minute walk from the Host Hotel (same side of the road even); unless you have mobility issues, staying there and walking to the show should not be a deal breaker.

If we all stay at a better (ie: any other) hotel, the show won’t survive, unless JR and his tiny cadre of “you guys are snowflakes because you don’t like roaches, mold, broken AC in June, and raw sewage odors” guys book entire wings of the Host to help keep it afloat.

It’s a quandary.

I have been to shows all over and on multiple occasions have been 5, 10 minutes away and it is annoyance. Especially when you been on your feet all day. And if this hotel is as moldy, bug infested as said, the exhibit hall is likely just as unhealthy. Bottom line if I am going to travel for a show, the issues with this show pushes it down the list. Sounds like those running the show understand this and are looking to improve the situation.

Not sure what violence in big cities has to do with my feelings of wanting to attend shows with quality accommodations, food, etc. on site.

Every show has its challenges, but the issues here seem to be far beyond “not enough food choices, hard floors, or a noisy hotel”. There are a lot of great shows to choose from, a moldy, bug infested hotel with no decent food, not a great selling point. If they want this to be more then a local show, then the primary topic of conversation after the show can’t be how disgusting the venue is. Why would I choose bugs and mold over a dozen other shows that are better situations. Hopefully they get these things figured out so pintastic can be the show the organizers want it to be.

Tiny cadre? As far as I know, they manage to sell out the host hotel every time. I don't know why you are so fixated on the condition of the accommodations when you don't even stay there! As I've said before, maybe I'm lucky, but I've stayed there for every Pintastic event, and I've never had any major issues with my accommodations. The room I had last fall was exceptionally nice. It's not luxury, but it's reasonably adequate overall for a bed and a shower.

Some of us won't have a single drink with dinner and drive. If I've had even one, I'm done driving until the next morning.

Not sure Boxborough is the answer either. I was excited about that prospect when it was supposed to be the venue before covid hit. Looking at pics it looked like a cleaner, identical version of Sturbridge. If you look at reviews from the past few years, it sounds like it's gone/going the way of the Host hotel.

Looking forward to the show in the fall and better accommodations. I will say the lobby looks great every time you see it. So if thata the only renovation they were going for they nailed it but other than that the place is a shithole. Was starting to make me think the Allentown Ramada was a more upscale choice.

Isn't the center of New England in NH? Dunbarton, New Hampshire to be precise.

No

I think you should just stick with the current location as long as they don't significantly raise the price. IMO it supports the needs of this show just about perfectly. Maybe next time tell the doll show to piss off, although it was kinda fun watching the old ladies set that up.

A little late to this party but better late than never!! This was my first time going to the Pintastic show. I stumbled upon the show online in June and decided to take Friday off from work and make the trip from Plymouth. I've always been into pinball, especially in my teens playing Medieval Madness, World Cup 94, Theatre of Magic and others in the arcades. My parents bought a Simpson's Pinball Party back in 2004 and at that time it really seemed like pinball was on its way out the door. Stern was the only company making machines at the time (that I was aware of?) and we lucked out with SPP. Anyways, I had no idea of the resurgence of pinball until the last couple months. WOW! So I hit the road on Friday and got to the show around 11:30. What followed was about 10 hours of pure joy. Machine after machine on free play, I've never seen anything like it. It was heaven!!! I talked to a number of people as well, including the guys from the pinball clubs, and there were just so many nice, real people. I played so many machines, it just went on and on. So much awesomeness, new and old. I got one high score on Mandolorian while I was scanned in and it was sweet to see my name on the board. Finally around 9:30, after many "one more games," I had to head home. The next day I was totally hung over. I've never done ecstasy or drugs like that but I imagine it's the same sort of hungover, with all the serotonin, dopamine etc drained out!! Needless to say, two of my three kids really really wanted to go to the show. One thing led to another and we were on the road at 5:30pm for the hour and a half trek back to Sturbridge. We finally made it and let's just say the second trip wasn't the same as the first, haha. Every time I fired up a game, my 6 year old daughter and 8 year old son were gone. They got a few games in but were more into buying random junk anywhere they saw it (or more like, begging me to buy them random junk). Eventually they suckered me into buying them some Pokemon cards and some Pintastic gear at the front. My son now wears his flat billed Pintastic hat everywhere, haha. I think the highlight of the night was towards the end when my daughter was over in the row of older pins, playing a game and chatting it up with an older gentleman. For like, a while. Finally I go over there and she is having the time of her life and I think she got a really high score as well. "Daddy daddy I love this game, can we get it??" The game was "Swinger" hahaha. I am sure the gentleman that brought the game is on these boards, and if so then thank you so much for bringing the game and babysitting my daughter for a half hour!! All she talks about to anyone who will listen is how much she loves "Swinger" pinball, hahaha .

Long story short, Friday was probably one of the better days I can remember, playing pinball all day with not a care in the world. Saturday was cool too, with the kids. Yes, the bug is planted and I'm on the hunt for my first machine, which will happen soon. I'll be at the next Pintastic, no question, and I can't wait. I told all my buddies about my experience at the show. Their first reaction is always a sort of surprise and shock that such a show even exists. Their second reactions is always "man, I LOVE pinball!!"

Of course you do!! How can you not?!!

How did you find out about the show? An Ad?

I didn't bring it.... but I absolutely took a picture of it.

I enjoyed this one too!

20220623_190825[1] (resized).jpg

We recently started renting out a house on AirBnb and I was looking for things to put in the game room in the basement. I was looking or places to buy arcade games, etc. Pretty sure it was an ad somewhere. I ended up buying a Pop-A-Shot basketball game off Amazon, a ping pong table, a pool table, and 5 Arcade1Up machines. The consensus at Pintastic was "don't put pinball machines in a short term rental... they will get beat to hell!!!"

No problem, I'll put one in my own basement

Those are some super groovy disco swingers, hahaha!! It's an awesome machine for sure.

Incorrect

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_New_England

Well, the geographic center of the US is Lebanon, Kansas, but you wouldn't want to have a pinball show there, either...or at least one that anybody would show up to. Where are most of the people coming from at Pintastic? I'd argue that Gabe gets the NE crowd as well as loads from NY, NJ, and even PA. As enticing as it might be to move the show closer to Boston or other points in NE, you risk cutting out about half of your regular patrons. Also, as the organizer of the show, I'm sure he'd like to keep it close to where he lives since he schleps many of the great machines there every year.

I go to Allentown, but York is a little too far for me for what you get. Likewise, Pintastic is great where it is, but I'd have to think about annual attendance if it was in the Boston area or up in NH.

It maybe the "geographic center" of New England but boatloads of people come from PA/NJ/NY.

The "geographic center of NE" is a thin argument for "I want it closer to my house"

I wish York was closer to my house as well, but it would be a bad call for the show guys to make moving it.

I was just responding to Dmarston's post mentioning if you lived near the "center of New England" to volunteer, but not saying where he figured the "center of New England " was. So I Googled it, because I wasn't sure either. Hell, my local Walmart is located in "The center of New England " shopping Plaza, on "Center of New England Boulevard"

I'd bet that a huge proportion-- maybe half-- are coming from the mid-Atlantic. The further the show gets from the Mass Pike, and the further east it goes, it will become harder and harder to draw those people in. Putting it in a state where there might be as many moose as people will kill it for sure.

Mid Atlantic? Really? They must be desperate or used to disappointment.

I'm about the same distance as you are from the current location.

Desperate? I'm not even sure what you're talking about. Allentown and York are both further for me... but I still go. Flea market aside, Pintastic is a *much* better show than either of those.