Bomb scares, LAPD mess, almost getting hit by traffic, being forced out of the convention center across the street while opening ceremonies continued, morning madness and complete lack of care for it's patrons GenCon gets hit with a bit of karma. Lucasfilm is Sueing Gen Con (http://gencon.com/) on four allegations over Celebration IV. This move has forced Gen Con to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a court date with LucasFilms on January 10th.

From: http://theforce.net/latestnews/story/Lucasfilm_Sues_Gen_Con_112361.asp

"There's some big news that just came onto the radar: Lucasfilm is suing Gen Con over issues with Celebration IV! While the case is stamped January 10th, this is the first I've heard anything about it. You can read the full complaint but here are the allegations.

1. Gen Con failed to uphold its legal obligations in terms of financial reporting, accounting and payments to Lucasfilm ($500,000 in damages)
2. Gen Con did not give auction proceeds to Make-A-Wish as they had agreed to do ($150,000 in damages)
3. Gen Con did not give Lucasfilm their share of the auction proceeds ($150,000 in damages)
4. Gen Con did this all unjustly ($150,000 in damages)"

Click here for PDF on full charges: http://www.gamerchicksrule.com/content/files/LucasVGenCon.pdf

UPDATE: We've also been alerted to the fact that Gen Con has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. More on that right here.

UPDATE 2: Gamerchicksrule.com has done more digging and found that Gen Con has filed a response to the lawsuit.

"For pretty much every claim, Gen Con says that they do not have information to confirm Lucasfilm's claims and therefore denies them since they do not have enough information to form a belief. They claim the right to have kept any money against what Lucasfilm owes them. They then go on to add their own counterclaim that Lucasfilm hasn't paid them almost $80,000 for their booth and other costs related to Celebration IV.
Most companies don't file a lawsuit as the first action in a dispute so it sound like there is quite a bit of disagreement that they were unable to resolve."

So what does this mean to the average fan like you and me? Well it puts C5 in questionable status now I would imagine. However, nothing has even been announced on C5 yet ;-)

UPDATE 3: Fan of TheForce.net Tom F. sends the following he found over at enworld.org, a letter from Peter Adkison, owner of GenCon:

"Friends: I wanted you to hear this from me first.

Today Gen Con is filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

Essentially what happened is that we lost a lot of money this year running a licensed non-Gen Con event. We owe several companies money from this show and it's going to take time to pay them off. To protect ourselves from the more aggressive companies we have been forced to seek protection from the courts.

While this is certainly an unfortunate development it will not impact our ability to operate Gen Con Indy, nor should it affect our licensed Gen Con events in the UK, Paris, and Australia.

The way a Chapter 11 works is that we negotiate a long-term payment plan with our creditors with the assistance of the US judicial system. The courts will closely oversee our business affairs to make sure we are running the company prudently and that we have a reasonable plan to pay everyone off. Which we do. The courts also protect us from aggressive creditors so that we can continue operating.

Gen Con LLC will get through this strong at the other end. Our fundamental revenue generating asset is our Indianapolis show, Gen Con Indy. This show is profitable enough to cover our direct costs, our overhead, and have some funds left over to pay off the debts from the licensed show. It will take some time, but this is one of those situations that the Chapter 11 filing was designed for, to help good companies get through a rough situation.

Everyone will eventually get paid and business will return to normal. In the meantime, Gen Con Indy carries forward without interruption. Heck, if the airline companies can do it, why not us!


I've learned some hard lessons about the event business over the last few years. After trying to get Gen Con So Cal to work, and then losing money on this non-Gen Con event, I've learned how difficult it is to run a "big show" and make money. It's a highly speculative affair where you're never quite sure until the show's over whether you made money or lost, mainly because you just don't know how many people are going to come and for how long.


So, going forward our organization is going to focus on what we do best: managing Gen Con Indy, a healthy, vibrant show that has been growing nicely ever since moving to Indianapolis."


[sarcasm on] I wonder what "non-Gen Con event" could possibly be? [/sarcasm off]


UPDATE 4: SciFiFann Reports:

"My wife supplied the temp staff for the Gen Con Celebration IV. The company she worked for ISSG was never paid for their services by Gen Con and they owed more than 150k for the 400 temp staff used.
The company she worked for closed due to the death of the owner last August but that money is still due to the bank that took over the receivables for the temp staffing agency. Gen Con is being sued by First Private Bank and Trust for the invoices due from supplying the temp staff for SWCIV. "