Worldcon Site Selection Politics

[kevin_standlee]

I am concerned about rumblings over the current Worldcon site selection election. Specifically, I've heard people say that if Kansas City doesn't win, it proves that the relatively new "no-zone" site selection system is broken and needs changing. For heaven's sake, it's only been in full operation for the last three election cycles (the previous three years were a transition period). It takes a lot longer than that to figure out whether a system is working or not. We did three-year lead time for almost twenty years before going back to two years.

The same complaints inform me that the center of the continent will be completely frozen out under "no-zone," and that Denver certainly isn't "Central" (although it looks that way from here in California), but neither is Chicago! That is, Denver is "West" and Chicago is "East." And when I asked about Texas, they told me that it's "South." That means "Central" consists of a pretty small area: Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Oh, and possibly western Illinois and Wisconsin, but not Chicago and not Milwaukee.

Some have pointed to the lack of a Minneapolis Worldcon as further evidence of bias against the center. Minneapolis, for instance, is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the US & Canada to not yet host a Worldcon. But like the old joke about Murray and God, you have to buy a lottery ticket in order to win the lottery, and aside from Minneapolis in '73, there are have been no serious bids from Minneapolis. (Which is a shame, really, because it's a nice city with a good looking convention center and relatively close downtown hotels.)

Frankly, I expect "no-zone" will lead to slightly fewer Worldcons in what was the old Central zone (which did include Chicago and Texas; sorry about that, folks), because Worldcons are now more likely to follow general population demographics, and the edges of the continent have more people living there than the center. But accusations that the con will bounce back and forth between Boston and Anaheim are just silly.

Edit, 11:35: Fixed geographic typo pointed out in comments.

Comments

[fla-sunshine.livejournal.com]

Maybe if Kansas City would just get out an BID, they would give the lie to these complaints. The race was clearly theirs to lose after their great performance against LA last time, but they have been missing some critical conventions in the last couple of years, and I heard the KC smofcon did not go over well for them. They are nice folks and I still support them, but I'm seriously thinking now about how much fun a Montreal worldcon could be despite my dismay about the previous Canadian Worldcon.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Oh, and possibly eastern Illinois and Wisconsin, but not Chicago and not Milwaukee.

You realize, of course, that both Chicago and Milwaukee are in eastern Illinois and Wisconsin respectively.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Speaking about as definitively for Minneapolis fandom as anyone can (i.e. not at all), I'll point out that all Minneapolis needs is about a dozen Worldcon-running-level fans, of which we have approximately me.

The facilities are fairly great (indoor connections to more hotel rooms than anybody else, mostly about 2 blocks away from the Convention Center). It's the people to run it that are lacking.

And if God wanted me to win the lottery, I'd find a ticket.

[solarbird]

Chicago... isn't... central?

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HELLO MIDWEST YOUR COWS ARE CALLING FROM THE OHIO VALLEY ON LINE THREE, YOU ARE CENTRAL, PLS TO GET OVER IT NAO

Incidentally, I have observed, in my extremely limited experience, a noticeably smaller SMOF attendance at northern Westercons than LA Westercons. (I would say southern, but my only direct experience is with LA. OTOH, I am told that El Paso, for all its problems, was a SMOFfest. And so on.)

[sfrose.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm not sure how KC losing proves that the no-zone system is broken.

I do know that the bid was theirs to lose (as long as they made an effort) and there hasn't been much visible activity since SMOFcon.

[mwillmoth.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but Minneapolis is way too cold and way too green for us desert rats. I don't even have a coat thick enough to keep me warm there in August/September... :-)

<== Mike ==>
[native Phoenician Arizonan]