New England LAN Woes

So, I am trying to gather information in order to get the New England LAN going and have sort of hit a road block. I was originally excited about having it at F1 Boston, which is a Go Kart racing place. The Kart tracks are indoors and the place itself is very large/nice. F1 has a restaurant, bar, pool hall, arcade, indoor and large go kart tracks (of course) and large meeting spaces that overlook the race tracks.

 

I thought that this would be a great setting for a LAN party. The problems are that F1 is not a hotel. F1 does not allow anyone to bring their own beverages/food into the place. F1 charges $50 per monitor if you rent an LCD. (in order to hook it up to a 360 for example)

 

It was brought to my attention that these issues are deal breakers, meaning that it is not worth it to have the LAN there if people have to travel to the location, can’t bring their own keg (for example) and have a wildly inflated ticket price due to the high cost of renting an LCD from F1.

 

I can understand the $50 rental price being a problem. I can understand wanting to have the LAN in the same hotel that you are staying at to minimize hassle. I don’t really care all that much that you are not allowed to bring your own food/drink into the place. There is a bar and a restaurant on the site. Sure the prices are “Bar Room” prices, but hey. .. whatever. (I should probably mention that I do not drink, but this still affects me since they do not allow bottled water even)

 

So, my question is: Does this stuff really matter all that much? I mean, if your options are to have a LAN party in a hotel meeting room, where you would need to bring all your own stuff, food and beverages or have it in a large entertainment facility where you can not bring your own food/beverages and that offers more than just the LAN itself in way of entertainment where would you opt for? How high a ticket price is too high?

 

I would also like to know why people want to go to LANS? I mean, we all want to play games and meet one another etc… but besides that, is there any other reason, in general, that you would want to go to a LAN? What would need to be offered at said LAN in order for you to participate in it, considering that you would have to fly to the location and schedule vacation time etc? Heh…. Y’know besides being offered money to go, going for free or having dancing girls there. (or guys…hmm, maybe I should just say “dancing people” then everyone is covered. Well you know what I mean)