I'm trying hard NOT to think about that right now.

The key is to have a group get a room together. It's going to cost me $200 for 5 nights (forced into Sun night), with 4 others. Slightly crowded, and showers need to be scheduled (please, we aren't Magic players).

And then you have the events (looking at close $100 for SWM events for me, luckily others are cheaper), food, and the dealer hall, depending on your resitance to the new and shiny.

I'm selling 2 minis (one heroclix, one star wars mini) and that should net me about $100 which will cover my hotel room (split 7 ways). Then I'll eat pop tarts and Jimmie johns for meals and thatll be $50 or so for a week. Figure about $100 to cover tickets and then all I have is gas and stuff I want to buy. I can get out of there spending $200 if I dont do anything besides play and eat light. I won't though so $500 is a good bet.

Great thread though. I've never been to a gencon, and my gf was just asking me the cost when I told her I had full intention of finally going next year. I have a few questions. Sith, you said it would be $100 for the SWM event. What exactly does that entail? Is there a charge fee to get into the tourney? If so, where does that money go? V-set team? Convention Center? Just curious as to how that breaks down. You also said that most events cost less. I assumed that the events were wrapped into the $70 pass, so, it sounds like if you really want to involve yourself rather than walk around the vendor room, it can be a pricey little con.

Echo summed it up pretty well. Gencon eats up a pretty decent chunk of what we charge for events. Everything else goes toward prize support (which IMO will be pretty good this year). We are basing our prize structure this year off the old WOTC structure of 3-1 gets a "small prize" and 4-0 gets a "big" prize". A small prize might be a booster, or a couple packs of Star Wars sleeves (by fantasy flight) or small gift certificate, an Attack of Endor pack, etc. A big prize might be a larger gift certificate or a bundle of 4 boosters, bundle of Christ West maps, etc. In addition the top 4 of each tourney will get a trophy as well.

darph nader got us a killer deal at the Hampton dowtown, $120 a night. My badge cost $80 and $80 for the 4 SWM events I signed up for.I usually drop bout $100 on gifts and cool new toys.
My advise to save $$$ is to get a hotel with free breakfast.

Well you can do it on the cheap.

Badge - You can volunteer with gencon or with ray to help with SWM events and have your badge covered. My Buddy and I are running the Geonisis Arena Battle twice on Friday and that will cover both our badges.

Tickets - Playing SWM or other games cost you. Not really a way around this one that I have found. I am playing in 4 events this year. The sealed event and the Mystery Map are a little more than others, but the total is $76. Why am I only playing in 4 SWM events? Friday is taken up by two 4 hour sessions of the Geonisis Battle. Plus I have learned much since 2009, which was my last GenCon appearance. That year I played in every SWM I could, which was great. The down side was I had little time to do anything else.

Place to lay your head - Since I know several place in Indy I can crash on multiple couches for free. I know this doesn't help many of you out, but many people split rooms. If you get a cheaper hotel that is not downtown, figure on $15 to $25 a day for all day event parking. Another option that I have known people to do is sleep in there cars, or sleep on the benches at the convention center. Not sure where you would get a shower, but that might explain some of the odors of the weekend.

Food - This is my biggest expense. Folks in Indy like there food and there are a ton of great places in the downtown area to eat and more if you venture away from downtown. Plus I think there are about 20 microbrews in the city. You can get anything from a $50 steak (no sides) to McDonalds and everything in between downtown. If you get up near Broad Ripple you have to eat at Union Jacks and get their pizza. Yeah it is a "British" style bar that serves pizza, which is odd. The pizza is awesome though.

You are also going to have to think about transportation if you are flying in. There is no mass transit system in Indy that links the Airport to downtown. You might be able to get a bus or depending on where you stay they might have free shuttles. Otherwise it is cabs. You could always wheel and deal with gamers that you know are going to be in town with a car and have them pick your butt up at the airport.

Hope that helps.

All said and done I spent $400 on the trip. That includes tickets, Hotel room, food, gas, and buying some cool stuff from Chris West's booth in the dealer hall.

Psh, you're just jealous that you didn't get to be in the championship room.

It cost me about $500, just like I expected. About $300 for food, tickets, badge, and games (I spent about $100 just on stuff in the dealer hall), then gas and hotel brings it up to around $500.