Ok, so just got back after spending the weekend there. This was my first time going, so I probably enjoyed it a bit more than the old timers. There are some positives, but just as many negatives, if not more. The positive was all the Hawks fans there. Pretty cool to see, even if a lot of them were idiots. Being able to get a few autographs was a bonus to the weekend. I really liked the vendor section. Picked up some pretty cool stuff for roughly half of what you would normally pay. That section was really the best thing about the convention, even if it was almost always wall to wall people. Seeing the old timers walking around and signing autographs was pretty cool too. I enjoyed Frank Pellico playing the organ in the interactive section, and overall I thought that section of the convention was a good idea. Especially with them having the food in there. Gave a lot of the kids something to do(even the bigger kids like me). Anyone beat 10/10 in 20.6 seconds in the shooting accuracy game?
I also almost killed some guy who was standing behind watching me shoot at the hardest slapshot thing. Fired one of those pucks off the crossbar and it came straight back out and flew past his face, and into the little kids' shootout rink! I guess that is what the waiver is for? :lol: That shot only registered at 59 on the gun? Pfft. In hindsight, they should probably have that thing in a cage... Way too many pucks coming out of there off of the iron. Waiver or not, if someone takes a puck to the mouth just walking through the area, they're going to have some legal trouble.
Now, the negatives. Totally oversold the event. Not even being able to fit 5% of the attending fans into the opening ceremony = giant fucking fail. I mean, seriously, find a new location for this fucking thing, or sell half as many tickets. I think the way they handled autographs was terrible. The wristbands were pretty much a giant failure. Wait in line for a wristband, then wait in line again for the autograph? Stupid. On top of that, you had some of the autograph sessions completely empty, because once you had a wristband for one session, you couldn't do another. Even if NOONE was in line for them. Scratch and win cards for autograph sessions? Really? Hotel guests getting ONE fucking autograph per room? I mean, what sense does it makes to give hotel guests two passes per night, per room, but only a SINGLE fucking autograph for the entire weekend? At least our autograph was Sharp. Was pretty funny going up there and seeing him in a fucking wife beater though. :lol: Could they, at the very least, have had just ONE session where you went through and got the entire team's autograph? I can imagine that a lot of people that went to the convention, left without a single autograph. The players were really nowhere to be found.
The hotel is really pretty shitty. The conference/ball rooms that they have there are not big enough to accomodate the number of attendees. The hotel is pretty shit overall. The bed was comfortable, that's about the only positive. The TV in the room sucked balls, and had to be at full volume to hear anything. The bathrooms were terrible. Our toilet leaked and didn't flush properly unless you held the handle down. My buddy's bathroom had the handle come off the sink, and his shower was fucked up and didn't spray properly. There is really zero benefit to staying in the hotel, aside from not having to travel back and forth all weekend.
I'll be saving my money next year and staying home. Won't be going again unless they change the venue to something that can actually accomodate the number of people attending.
