I find it most interesting that some of the most vehement contributors to this thread are not TCA members. Hmmm, , , Complaining about something you don't even belong to or contribute to ? I guess one of the subtle advantages of this forum.
Joe Hohmann's comments above have it pretty close to right. The only one that wins in Joe's scenario is the WGH staff.
The important thing to measure between York and those other highly successful, Greenberg, WGH, etc, train shows is the $$ sales per hour or $$ sales per attendee. I would like to see hard data on the total dollars spent per show per attendee compared against any York $$ numbers. Not just some vendor saying I had a great show.
Also consider that York may have a higher number of shows to compete against in a 300 mile radius compared to the Rocky Mtn show.
I know personally I will drive a 58 hour round trip of 3342.7 miles to go to York and spend several hundred dollars. Its much cheaper and easier than going to the WGH/Greenberg highly successful shows. There, it's the same old vendors with the same old repainted, reproduction, etc stuff. Those people go to York also, but at least with the TCA you have recourse and they are usually smart enough to not bring that junk to York.
No where else can Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Bachmann, etc., etc., find a concentrated gathering of people WITH CASH IN THEIR HAND that are interested in their product. Why do you think those manufacturers keep coming back every six months? And the ones that don't come back may not have the correct product, or business model to be successful. No business is America is guaranteed to be successful except the gov't and monopolies. Everyone else has to COMPETE to survive. To my knowledge, no train gauge or train manufacturer get excluded from York. But the market may not be there for them like it would be at a NMRA event.
I view York as similar to a manufacturers expo, like APEX. They aren't open to the public and it costs a fortune for manufacturers to rent space to display. Like York, it's not nearly as big as in years past due to companies restricting travel to save money. BUT they know the traffic (attendees) will be a highly concentrated group of people with money or buying influence to look at their product and decide. Most often all of the major competitors in a market niche will be there for the attendee to do a close comparison. At York, it's not many feet from Lionel to MTH to Bachman or other competitors in the orange hall.
Are the York attendance numbers decreasing from years past, yes. Are more and more manufacturer's/ LHS getting out of the business, yes. I think those two things are linked by a dying demographic, internet sales, and a loss of spendable income in the modern American family.
) The dealers and manufacturers should really love this change.
), but my initial reaction is that it will likely result in a short-term net gain for the Eastern Division (until the novelty wears off) and a long-term net loss for the TCA as a significant number of current members (including younger, operation- and tech-oriented members) fail to renew due to the lack of any "special" status afforded their membership and the availability of Friday/Saturday participation, at less cost as a John Q. Public, in the hall or halls they are most interested in frequenting.
