2021 ANA convention Who's Going?

Rosemont is safe, it’s in the burbs. If you go the proper areas, Chicago is safe. Yes there are rough areas, but are rough spots even in Omaha. At a hub and near Ohare, it’s a central ideal location.

Omaha would actually be a good location. West Coast is a bad location as proven. Milwaukee is good, Boston is an awesome city. But I had to laugh about Iowa City - might as well bring up Peoria.

 

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There are crime issues in Chicago - Edited - . Rosemont and the suburbs are safe however. Overall I do have a feeling that dealers like the location. The city is on the downswing, but people complaining about huge parking and concessions are nickel and dimming, considering it is a fantastic show.

 

Yea every city has its spots, it’s really just more the attitude of the cities for what they’re doing about it.

Boston would mostly be the same thing especially for prices, Iowa city yea I don’t think I’d do there. Anywhere in the east coast will be expensive aside from like South Carolina but then you’d run into flight issues. I wouldn’t do the west coast either, enough shows there already other than maybe give Vegas a try and hope you suck in some tourists. I wouldn’t hate Phoenix either with the weather.

Milwaukee a lot of MLB players always say it’s the most boring place unless you really love cheese so maybe not the best.

The more I think about it the more I think they really should give Omaha a try especially since it’s about a month after the CWS where the city will still be buzzing a little bit from that. Texas and Nashville would be good options to try as well as you can never go wrong with good bbq not to mention these places would have lower taxes on everything too

 

It seems silly when your probably spending thousands on coins, but I get it. You’re already spending several hundred if not more than a thousand on transportation, flights, hotels, food etc it all adds up and quickly eats into the coin budget. For people not buying expensive coins they could easily end up spending more on everything else than at the show.

 

The gangs have a virtual free hand in the City - Edited - . Just stay put and don't go wandering off. This isn't the time to be a tourist there.

 

Chicago is a good location for all the previously stated reasons but also the metro is ~9million population so the show starts with a huge ‘local’ population plus its an eight hour drive from a huge amount of the US population.

But perhaps I’m biased as I live a 20 minute drive from the site.

 

And here’s what I got today:

 

I can understand why they have it there. There's pros and cons. The facility is huge and beautiful. It's the second time I've been to it. I don't think its unreasonable to state the costs of going there as not everybody on this forum is independently wealthy including me. Parking is $29 a day at hotel and you've got state, county, AND local tax on top of everything. Is what it is. Not going to lose sleep over it but some of you guys must have way more energy than me. Not everybody lives down the street or flies in. By the time you drive for hours, get there, get to hotel, check in get a room, get to the show, spend 4 or 5 hours scanning cases making deals and trying to see exhibits before floor closes, walk back to room, I was beat.

I enjoyed the day there today and got in when it opened but still seemed pressed for time as had 3 hrs of hard searching before needed to check out at noon to head back home. Show was over at 4 anyway. I got everything I went there for and made some good memories so it was well worth the trip. Not a lot of time to chit chat and I can't imagine how many booths I didn't get to look at. ....I better not show what I got now since I complained about the parking fee.

 

Eddie spin - Chicago is not as bad as what they are reporting on Fox News. Stay out of the rough neighborhoods and you’ll be fine.

 

Baseball21, for a National show, you will spend a lot of money on what you just listed.

 

Crime stats and consistently breaking your own record for numbers of shootings has nothing to do with Fox News though mentioning them is obviously just a way to deflect from the massive crime problem in the city. The 461 shootings in July alone that was a 15% increase from the precious year has nothing to do with any news station.

 

Rosemont is a suburb and it is safe. We’re not talking 69th St.

 

Not all areas of Chicago are bad, get off the Fox-news hype…

 

You can see downtown Chicago from the convention center! There's these things called cars and trains that get people around fairly quickly.

I'm not an expert on where the crime is "contained to" but many other news outlets have reported on problems out on the interstates including people getting shot just driving to work and kids being shot in crossfire at fast food drive throughs. A female tourist from Maryland was walking downtown this summer visiting for the first time. In a "safe area". It was 4 p.m. She was stabbed and killed for no reason.

There's stats coming out of the city that you don't hear of anywhere else other than maybe Baltimore. Maybe? If the number of people injured and killed over a single weekend was over in Afghanistan, the entire country would be in mourning. I'm talking one weekend, not a month or year. 75 to 100 shot and a dozen killed is an average weekend this year. That's why it was brought up. There's no glossing over it.
It would seem the police aren't safe either as two officers were just ambushed this week with one killed and the other in critical condition. Maybe Rosemont is far enough away from "the action" but it's advertised as being Chicago. I don't view it the same as I did 10 years ago and I was concerned then.

 

Ah so you're the kind of guy that likes listening to news that doesn't report on any of it so you can pretend its not happening? Got it.

 

Shootings are generally heavily concentrated in areas aside from drive bys but othe crime spills over and spreads out. The muggings, robberies, car thefts, assaults etc are much more spread out and can happen anywhere and have also been on the rise in that city. Would you be fine, probably but you’re okay until your not. It’s not appealing to me nor many others to drive or fly to a city with a ton of money on me to buy valuable things and support a city with insanely high taxes who doesn’t support their police. Chicago is and always has been one of the most corrupt cities in the country and has been on the decline for many years now unfortunately.

Someone constantly trying to deflect by mentioning a news station that they apparently think is an insult just shows they have no interest in facts just ideology

 

No - I grew up in a Chicago suburb. And of course you can see Chicago from Rosemont - the city has 100+ floot skyscrapers! You can see Chicago from Michigan on the other side of the lake!

 

I am saying Chicago has world class museums, restaurants - and an ideal location for the ANA show.

Also, new networks - CNN, Fox, whoever - presents the gloom and down story to ensure high ratings. Check other major cities (not Omaha or Iowa City) and they have the same problems.

 

They're out of control there. They're just not going to tell you that on the local news. I've my roots in Cicero. I've never seen it like this, this out of control, ever.

 

Just for fun, I thought I would look up actual crime statistics from the FBI for major cities in the midwest. The numbers below are violent crimes per 100,000 population. Statistically, Chicago seems to be one of the safer cities in the region. Not that numbers will affect anyone's POV, but all the squabbling made me curious. These numbers are for 2017, the most recent I could find.

St. Louis 2,082
Detroit 2,057
Kansas City (MO) 1,724
Milwaukee 1,597
Cleveland 1,557
Indianapolis 1,334
Minneapolis 1,101
Chicago 1,099
Cincinnati 947
Louisville Metro 647
Columbus (OH) 513