SCG Open Chicago

[jrw1985]

Why is this not happening? Chicago is a pretty obvious market to host a SCG 5K, but I never see them scheduling events there. What gives? They schedule 2 a year in Indianapolis and St. Louis, but Chicago gets no love. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?

[cdr]

If there's not a SCG Open in [insert major city here] it's liable to be an issue with venue cost or logistics. Believe me, they want to do Opens wherever possible. You could try asking one of the events people at an Open or tweeting them.

I seem to recall from GPs that event space in the Chicago area is pretty expensive.

[CorpT]

Event space is expensive, and from what I understand, the Unions in Chicago make things very difficult for people to set up, tear down, etc... Not that you couldn't have SCG Schaumburg. I was happy with SCG Madison though. That's pretty close.

Getting some new blood in to the TO scene in Chicago that might hopefully change things in the area.

[jrw1985]

I guess this is also why I've never noticed an Open in New York thus far.

[gregtron]

Event space is expensive, and from what I understand, the Unions in Chicago make things very difficult for people to set up, tear down, etc... Not that you couldn't have SCG Schaumburg. I was happy with SCG Madison though. That's pretty close.

Getting some new blood in to the TO scene in Chicago that might hopefully change things in the area.

I've heard the same things regarding the unions here. I'm a pro-union guy (hell I'm in a union), so it's frustrating for me to hear that this type of thing is happening. SCG should really just hire a consultant who has experience dealing with strong local unions and see if they can work out an arrangement, as I have a feeling that no one Chicago has tried anything close to that yet. There's no reason that there shouldn't have been an event like this, considering Chicago hosts a fair number of conventions and trade shows.

As for the TO scene in Chicago... There really isn't one, right? It's mostly just LGS owners having events in their relatively small spaces or Alan up at Pastimes holding ~100 person events up in Niles.

[Water_Wizard]

I lived in Chicago a few years ago and I was shocked by the lack of a MTG tournament scene. I lived there in 2007-2008 and I looked on Wizard's webpage to find FNM or similar sealed-deck tournaments (for granted, this is sealed, not Legacy, which boasts much higher barriers to entry) and I could find nothing in the downtown Chicago area. I trumped it up to the expense of Chicago-land rentals and a lack of interest. Perhaps the events were not listed, but you figure in a city of 20 million people, you could find some frickin' FNM.

I started playing a lot of MTGO at that point (because there was no irl tournament scene).

[joemauer]

I've heard the same things regarding the unions here. I'm a pro-union guy (hell I'm in a union), so it's frustrating for me to hear that this type of thing is happening. SCG should really just hire a consultant who has experience dealing with strong local unions and see if they can work out an arrangement, as I have a feeling that no one Chicago has tried anything close to that yet. There's no reason that there shouldn't have been an event like this, considering Chicago hosts a fair number of conventions and trade shows.

As for the TO scene in Chicago... There really isn't one, right? It's mostly just LGS owners having events in their relatively small spaces or Alan up at Pastimes holding ~100 person events up in Niles.

That costs more money. You have to remember Starcitygames is a business.

I am kind of blown away that there will be a SCG tourney in New Orleans! In October! October is during the peak time of convention business so I doubt Starcitygames got the location for the event(probably the convention center) for cheap. Also we don't really have much of a Legacy scene down here. I am still excited.

[CorpT]

I've heard the same things regarding the unions here. I'm a pro-union guy (hell I'm in a union), so it's frustrating for me to hear that this type of thing is happening. SCG should really just hire a consultant who has experience dealing with strong local unions and see if they can work out an arrangement, as I have a feeling that no one Chicago has tried anything close to that yet. There's no reason that there shouldn't have been an event like this, considering Chicago hosts a fair number of conventions and trade shows.

I think you're really underestimating the stranglehold unions have here. I'm not particularly anti-union myself, but some of the requirements are absolutely insane. I work IT and we wanted to have a fiber run between two offices in the same building. It was tens of thousands of dollars and months later before we could even get started on a simple fiber drop through existing infrastructure. All because the union controlled building wouldn't work with us. And frankly, they didn't have to. We were in their building and had to abide by their rules. But it sure didn't make us want to be in that building any more.


I lived in Chicago a few years ago and I was shocked by the lack of a MTG tournament scene. I lived there in 2007-2008 and I looked on Wizard's webpage to find FNM or similar sealed-deck tournaments (for granted, this is sealed, not Legacy, which boasts much higher barriers to entry) and I could find nothing in the downtown Chicago area. I trumped it up to the expense of Chicago-land rentals and a lack of interest. Perhaps the events were not listed, but you figure in a city of 20 million people, you could find some frickin' FNM.

I started playing a lot of MTGO at that point (because there was no irl tournament scene).

From my experience, downtown Chicago is devoid of anything close to a scene. Out in the suburbs, things are getting better. Previously, it was just Pastimes that held events, but now that others are joining the mix (Gaming Goat, HotSauce to name a few) things are getting better. Frankly, because Pastimes never had to worry about it, I think they got very complacent. Which is why their store was such a miserable place. Cramped, overcrowded, filled with essentially garbage, etc...

I'm not sure why downtown is so lacking, but I would expect that it is because of the high cost to rent a store there. I'm guessing it is much cheaper to get something big enough to hold tournaments in out in the burbs.

[JACO]

I think it has more to do with Pastimes than with negotiating the cost of setting up a hotel ball room in the Chicago suburbs. It's not that expensive compared to other large cities.

[dontbiteitholmes]

I think it has more to do with Pastimes than with negotiating the cost of setting up a hotel ball room in the Chicago suburbs. It's not that expensive compared to other large cities.

I've heard both versions and to be honest it's probably a mix of several things.

I've definitely heard the unions are a big part. Most convention centers the SCG guys roll up then unload their shit and roll it into the convention center. From what the Chicago guys told me the unions have that on lock. If anything leaves a car or truck to come into the convention center a union guy is going to put his hands on it and that is going to cost you. One of the guys worked the last GP at the Chicago convention center and said that it costs Wizards $100 to bring in a box of printer paper because they had to have some union guy unload it and bring it in.

Granted a lot of this is hearsay on my part, but the people I heard it from own and run a store less than 30 mins from Chicago and have a booth at pretty much every midlevel to large event from Chicago to Madison.

[JACO]

I've heard both versions and to be honest it's probably a mix of several things.

I've definitely heard the unions are a big part. Most convention centers the SCG guys roll up then unload their shit and roll it into the convention center. From what the Chicago guys told me the unions have that on lock. If anything leaves a car or truck to come into the convention center a union guy is going to put his hands on it and that is going to cost you. One of the guys worked the last GP at the Chicago convention center and said that it costs Wizards $100 to bring in a box of printer paper because they had to have some union guy unload it and bring it in.

Granted a lot of this is hearsay on my part, but the people I heard it from own and run a store less than 30 mins from Chicago and have a booth at pretty much every midlevel to large event from Chicago to Madison.
The unions are active in the city of Chicago, so yes if you held it at McCormick Place convention center you would be paying more, but if you're holding it in some suburb like SCG usually does (whether it's in "Boston" or "St. Louis"), it's not really relevant for most hotels and other capable places where SCG would hold an event.

[CorpT]

The unions are active in the city of Chicago, so yes if you held it at McCormick Place convention center you would be paying more, but if you're holding it in some suburb like SCG usually does (whether it's in "Boston" or "St. Louis"), it's not really relevant for most hotels and other capable places where SCG would hold an event.

So, with new TOs getting more active, is Pastimes going to lose it's stranglehold on Chicago area events? XtremeGames is running SCG IQs. And Pastimes lost their Indianapolis PTQs. I would definitely go to SCG:Schaumburg.

[gregtron]

So, with new TOs getting more active, is Pastimes going to lose it's stranglehold on Chicago area events? XtremeGames is running SCG IQs. And Pastimes lost their Indianapolis PTQs. I would definitely go to SCG:Schaumburg.

I doubt it. Pastimes still gets a lot of love from WotC, and quite frankly, there's no other shop in the area that can rival their access to judges, event sites, product, or even just cash flow. They also have a pretty good relationship with SCG, just like they do with Legion Events and every other big name TOs, so I don't think SCG would do something ballsy and potentially disruptive like organize an SCG Open with, say, Xtreme Games. It just doesn't seem like a smart business move, but then again, I'm wrong a lot.

Pastimes also has a new community manager, and the owner is always looking at ways to branch out and do more in the Chicago area. Hopefully with her there to ease up on the amount of his time that's eaten up by community stuff, they can start to get more big events.

Anyone have any idea where GP Chicago will be this year? Really looking forward to that.