Rhode Island Comic Con 2014: Third Time NOT A Charm

The first day of Rhode Island Comic Con this year was colder than it has been since last May and rainy, and none of that stopped record crowds from showing up — and in the case of many hundreds, not being able to get in.

By early afternoon, reports had it that the dealer’s room and the hallways were so crowded that it was almost impossible to move. One person told me it took him 15 minutes to go from one end of the aisle he was in to the other, just to be able to exit the dealer’s room. Apparently those crowds were more than the Rhode Island Convention Center was officially allowed to handle, and a bit after 1 p.m. the state fire marshal shut down the doors to any more attendees.

It didn’t take long for people to realize the “no entrance” policy also applied to anyone who left the center, as they were not allowed back in. And I mean anyone — staff, exhibitors and press, in addition to paid attendees. Top volunteer staffers were not allowed to return to their jobs because of the overcrowding, which reached 20,000, according to a report from the Providence Journal.

The ProJo quotes Lawrence J. Lepore, the convention center’s general manager, as saying that the 20,000 attendees today beat the entire attendance over the two days last year, which he pegged at 17,000. That flies in the face of what RICC head Steven Perry told me last year right after the 2013 con. He said then that pre-sales were at 14,000 and when all was said and done he anticipated the final number to to be “in the ball park of 35,000.”

LePore also told the ProJo that tickets would be refunded for anyone who couldn’t get in, although he is not the head of the convention, but of the convention center in which it takes place.

For those that could get in, the crowds didn’t seem to phase them too much, from what various people told me. But I did see posts on Facebook from friends who left and were not allowed to re-enter, and decided to bail on the convention altogether — including one fairly well-known cosplay photographer.

Unfortunately for RICC, many of the “growing pains” complaints I had from the 2013 con weren’t fixed. Again this year the knowledge of the volunteer staff as to where certain things were happening or where one should go to get something was woefully — annoyingly — inadequate. I was told first thing this morning to go to the completely wrong place to get my staff and press badges, and I heard the same story from many of the cosplayers who did finally make it to the top floor Rotunda to enter the cosplay contest or get their pictures taken.

Poor staff knowledge aside, many of the problems that RICC had in its first year 2012 or last year were not the con’s fault. Particularly last year, when the shooting at LAX messed up the flight plans of nearly every West Coast celebrity that was scheduled to appear. And the autograph pricing debacle with Adam West last year was completely the fault of him or his management.

The same can’t be said of this year. Too many tickets for Saturday or both days were sold to allow for the number of people that also wanted to buy their tickets at the con.

Growth is a great thing for any fledgling enterprise. Uncontrolled growth is called cancer in a living being, and is unsustainable in a business. Like the mechanical bull at the Friday night Halloween party that kicked off RICC 2014, someone needs to get on and get control of the wild animal.