random thought on vendors not being happy - perhaps with the cost of LA for attendees, they spent more on staying at the convention and less on vendor's merchandise. or maybe they just focused less on the exhibitor's hall (frankly, there wasn't that much to see there) and more on the programming and such.

i wonder if the attendance hit a different demographic in LA than in Indy - were the casual day-tripping attendees in LA less likely to buy stuff than the casual day-tripping attendees in Indy. I would imagine that most LA residents who buy SW stuff have better access in general to higher-end SW merchandise (being in a major major city) than perhaps those in the Midwest. or perhaps LA guests are more interested in the stars than in the stuff - you'll notice that the midwest has a lot of collector clubs, while here we don't have as many collector clubs, but general fan clubs - we spend all our income on housing instead of toys ;)

random thoughts to explain it.