The Electronic Entertainment Expo is staying in the City of Angels after fears of a new football stadium and price gouging in the city threatened to have the biggest event in gaming moved elsewhere. The ESA announced today that the longtime host city of Los Angeles will continue to do just that into 2015.
Keeping the event in the city means that LA will be allowed to reap the benefits of over 45,000 attendees generating $40 million in revenue — E3 2012’s official numbers — for three more years. Next year’s dates have already been chosen and can be marked down in fans’ calenders as June 11-13, 2013.
“We are proud to partner with Los Angeles for another three years,” said ESA CEO Michael D. Gallagher. “The City serves as a strong backdrop for the video game industry’s biggest announcements and we look forward to remaining in LA Video games are a dominant force in the global entertainment marketplace and there is no better place to display that than Los Angeles.”
City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was ecstatic about the deal, stating that he went so far as to personally attend negotiations in order to ensure E3 stayed in his metropolis.
“My office was committed to doing whatever it took to keep the largest annual conference that the City hosts here for another three years,” declared Villaraigosa. “I personally joined in the negotiations, and we worked with all parties to ensure the needs of E3 would be met. The City is grateful the Entertainment Software Association continues to view LA, the entertainment capital of the world, as the ideal location for the world’s premiere video game convention.”
This agreement will also allow the event to continue unimpeded and in collaboration with the Los Angeles Convention Center’s remodeling by AEG in order to create Farmer’s Field.
“ESA’s commitment to remain in Los Angeles is a critical endorsement of Los Angeles as one of the nation’s most important convention destinations,” said AEG President and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke. “Working with ESA to provide the confidence in scheduling they have requested has truly been a collaborative effort. We are also grateful to ESA for their thoughtful input into the design plans which will result in the most efficient and modern facilities that will not only benefit E3 but all of the new conventions that will come to Los Angeles. On behalf of our City and AEG, thank you ESA, we won’t let you down.”
According to additional information obtained from Polygon, the show will remain the same for 2013, but will have a new look come 2014 and 2015 thanks to AEG’s construction. West Hall will be torn down following next year’s event, and an expansion will be built on South Hall to replace it, making the center a single, gigantic hall.
The construction wasn’t the only problem with keeping E3 in LA, however. Complaints had also been filed in recent years of select hotels and restaurants in the area hiking their prices during the week of the show, causing more concern and another issue that the ESA wanted resolved.
“If E3 is the highest return on investment trade show in LA we deserve better than that,” Gallagher told Polygon.
Luckily the city, convention center, and AEG were able to guarantee the ESA that these gouges would cease for the next three years, and a deal was struck that kept the show from moving to cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or New Orleans.
“We are glad we could come to an agreement that keeps E3 in its traditional home,” said Gallagher.
Are you glad that E3 is staying put? Are upset it isn’t coming to your home city? Sound off in the comments below!
BOOOOOOOO roaches.
They need to move it to Anaheim. F LA traffic!