At the Long Beach, CA DC this last week, the parking spaces were severely decreased from previous years. A full 45 minutes prior to the start of the Saturday program, the parking lot attendants were turning cars away because the lot was full! Many, many cars that came in just after ours did were turned away! Not surprisingly, once inside the arena, it was clear that the audience was nowhere near capacity, many empty seats in evidence.
I cannot help but think that this development is no mere coincidence inasmuch as the parking "donation" now is, for the first time of which I am aware, truly a donation---the amount of which the Society cannot reliably quantify in advance in order to be assured of coming out in the black.
Anybody better informed than I as to what the financial arrangement was in past years when the $5 "contribution" was collected and there was way more than ample parking? Was the Society possibly paying a certain fee for a generous amount of parking capacity along with the facility fee while collecting [considerably] more in "contributions" than they were being charged? If my guess is correct, the US convention department must have concluded that it'd be preferable this year to have the brothers SOL when it came to having a parking spot at the DC than risk renting sufficient spaces and not receiving enough donations to cover the rental fee and turn a profit.
While I'm on the subject, what is the reason DC parking went to bonafide donation basis this year?
Thanks.
-AMNESIAN