Ok, I'm pissed

I found out at the end of last week that the place I had set up for my gameday fell through.

We were supposed to be doing it in two weeks.

Now I'm screwed. Luckily there wasn't a huge amount of money involved or anything, but I bought some prizes, printed fliers, that sort of thing, and now I have no idea what to do. With zero time left and no where to host it, I'm likely to have to postpone at best, and cancel at worst.

This crap makes me angry. You know, as a business owner I can't even imagine doing this to a potential customer, especially one who was intending on bringing in a great deal more potential customers. I know it isn't limited to gamers, but you'd think that people who play games would at least take them more seriously. The guy actually said, "Yeah, I've know we couldn't do it for a while now, but I didn't know how to tell you, and I knew you were busy getting ready for GenCon."

Getting ready for GenCon! He knew at least four weeks ago?!

Arg. I've spent the last week trying to find a decent place, and short of throwing myself on the mercy of the local FLGS I have no idea where else to try for a decent price. Heck, even if David (the LGS owner) did let us do it there, which I doubt, since Dragon's Lair seems to be phasing out RPGs, there isn't time enough to change the location without changing the date.

At this point I'm considering scrapping the whole idea and just trying to put on a little mini-con this spring. By then I could gather some cash and rent a real space, with a real contract.

The problem is, though I know Austin is a good gaming town, and I know central Texas needs a decent con for gaming, I wonder if the number of people who would come would make up for my out of pocket expenses. I wouldn't mind losing a little money to get the chance to do something cool for local gamers, but I don't want to lose my shirt and then have no one show up.