They really tore into con-goers wallets this year with the premier tickets and all. Hell they were giving away free tickets at almost every event which made the 4 hour line and $30-50 spent practically worthless.
They've always made event tickets "free". You just usually had to wait in a huge line to get them. Now that they suckered a ton of people into buying premie tickets, the normal people won out really. Everyone benefited from no line to wait in (since the seats are assigned, you're an idiot to wait in line, in the hot sun). If you wanted a close seat, you paid money that's all it was for. For some people being that close was worth it. They can keep the premium tickets for all I care, it means I get my own ticket that much easier. Hopefully assigned seating too so I don't have to wait in line for hours.
I think next year's going to be the year that AX actually shrinks in terms of attendance. I would love to see around only 500 hardcore AX fans show up next year, that would definitely give them a kick in the ass to get some major changes rolling...
I'm not sure what kind of disaster it'll take for the Board of Directors to notice. I'm not sure AX even going down in flames would be enough for them to wake up to reality. They certainly don't care about AX, and if well even if they did their priorties would are FUBAR'ed. (See MTP's story about how they did something about the HnK tourney being cancelled, but nothing about SKIN/SOS concert delays? LOL)