
Rumors have been going around about a possible Celebration IV in 2007. I heard that Gencon might be back to host it again. Rumors of possible locations the past 6 months are Indianapolis, St. Louis, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, Anaheim, San Fransico, Los Angeles, and Oakland. I think most of the list is fan rumors and speculation right now. Gencon event director mentioned to me on the phone that gencon didn't have a contract with Lucasfilm for a star wars convention. If they did sign one then they would put it in their official website along with www.starwars.com. I checked the strong rumor going around about Los Angeles Convention Center hosting it May 23-27, 2007. I called them and they mentioned a Lucasfilm/Star Wars event-Gencon was listed has unconfirmed and unofficial. They did not act like it was totally 100% true so hopefully it is not since it shows favoritism to west coast star wars fans. Indiana Convention Center has enough space for a Celebration. It proved it by handling Celebration II and III. We just held the NCAA Men's Final Four in 2006 and NCAA Women's Final Four in 2005. We are hosting the 2010 Men's Final Four in 2010 and 2011 Women's Final Four in 2011. They could lease the RCA Dome next year with all of the Indiana Convention Center that could help organize the event better. The RCA Dome holds 55,000 people. Since no new Star Wars movie is coming out the Star Wars Celebrations in the future won't top Celebration III's total. It was utlimate star wars convention since everyone assumed it was the last one to concide with a new film. Indianapolis has good interstate system that branches like a spider web in most directions. It is less than 24 hour drive from major cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cinnacinti, Detriot, Chicago, St. Louis, Ney Yowk, Boston, Denver, etc. It has enough hotels for at least 30,000 hotel rooms with several next to the convention center. The Indianapolis International Airport is central and easy acessible. Steve Sansweet mentioned in 2003 that Celebrations are chosen with large convention center with hotels to accomodate the fans and is centrally located either by air or driving. Indy also host Indy 500, Brickyard 400, and U.S. Grand Prix every year with larger crowds than previous Celebrations. They are all good reason to keep Star Wars Celebration IV in Indy for 2007 if they have one in the future.