"The Host -- Auction update" Topic

Now $8 USD million. The reserve has still not been met….

Im guessing the reserve is 10 Large ones

Zoneofcontrol:
I _knew_ the Wasileski Brothers would go just a little too far in their games one day!

"I _knew_ the Wasileski Brothers would go just a little too far in their games one day!"

Yes, but I have it on good authority that no fat, old, balding white guys were injured in the making of the promo video!

Razorr78. I'll play. I'll say the reserve is their previous purchase price. So about 12.5 biggies.

Anyone else want to take a shot at the reserve price?

Sold 8.3

Ended at 8.3

And it's gone . . .

Not actually sold but "finalized"

So what does that mean?

Yep! Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!

I bet they get pork instead.

What are the ebay fees on a $8 USD million auction?

Now we wait. In a few hours, days, weeks or months, everything will become clear.

Does this mean it sold, or just that its over, since it didn't meet the reserve?

173 acres of prime development property
I wonder if the Phase I report picked up on the fact that tens of thousands of lead/zinc figures have wandered the property!

Does this mean it sold, or just that its over, since it didn't meet the reserve?

I believe it means that the current owners may accept the bid, negotiate for a better price, wait for a better offer or walk away.

or… we could combine Cold Wars with one hell of a demolition party?

"I bet they get pork instead."

That made me giggle more than it should have.

I bet they get pork instead.

Mmmmmm….roast pig….

I wonder how the auction site gets paid then?

Anybody got a good scenario we can run that has competing bidders racing to the bank with armored cars to be the first to buy the Host? We could run a combination of Amish Rake Wars + Death Race 2015. Since Buck Surdu just debuted his new WWII rule set at Fall-In!, we'll have to use his GASLIGHT ruleset.

Damn, couldn't hit the "Enter" button quickly enough.

Hit the "Shift" one instead.

I hate when that happens when trying to snipe. ;-)

If it didn't meet the reserve price, there's no sale, so no fees to earn.

Yea, someone may work out a back deal, outside of eBay.

Just in…. It was the Fed…. raising interest rates this morning quarter point or bidding on the Host for a future Fed meeting location. Someone's purchase money may have gotten a tat more expensive (if they really noticed).

I think I stand correct. In thinking on that, I am sure that auction website got a fee for their services. I have no idea if they get any money beyond that.

Buyers Premium (how much they have to pay the auction company) was listed as 5% of sale price with a 20k minimum

Buyers Premium (how much they have to pay the auction company) was listed as 5% of sale price with a 20k minimum

I think someone just bought a huge chunk o' miniatures.

Anybody got a good scenario we can run that has competing bidders racing to the bank with armored cars to be the first to buy the Host? We could run a combination of Amish Rake Wars + Death Race 2015. Since Buck Surdu just debuted his new WWII rule set at Fall-In!, we'll have to use his GASLIGHT ruleset.

zoneofcontrol:

What a great idea for a GASLIGHT scenario!

Buck

I still have my Amish bonnet….C

Watch for the email…"An item you have been watching has been relisted…"

^^^^^^ Lol!! ^^^^^^^

"Watch for the email…"An item you have been watching has been relisted…""

Great! I thought I missed my chance at the Tom Cruise boxer shorts.

now they'll start selling parts of the host. just like the vet stadium. who will bid on a pre used toiet?!!!!

As an aside most professional auction houses offer a resetting closing time per each bid received at the end of the auction. Nearly all the major online sports Memoribila auction houses do that for example. In many cases you can only place a bid after the original closing time if you had already placed one prior, but it allows you to never be snipped.

So perhaps the worst of all positions for HMGS now. No clear resolution to the sale. The negotiations could continue with potential buyers and the place could be sold days before CW and the place closed. Or not. What a mess. What about FI? Can HMGS even think of keeping it there now?

I wonder how much money the owners will continue to put into the place in the mean time?

Does anyone know just what exactly the penalty is for cancelling the site, by the Host? Our understanding in general is that there is a time-frame sliding penalty….but what?
Perhaps its just to indemnify HMGS for other convention related contracts with other parties [like tables/chairs etc]? Any punitive penalty?
My conjecture, if the Host is looking to sell out, I doubt they have much incentive to continue the business, even for us.

How could the Host say they were trying to breach the contract by selling the place this week and what assurances can they give if it didn't sell it won't by the next con? My guess would be 0.

"So perhaps the worst of all positions for HMGS now"………how so? If the sale does not go through and the hotel continues to operate, then Cold Wars will be held there.

If it is sold, do we know for sure the new owners plan on bulldozing the place ten minutes after buying it; maybe, just maybe, they plan on keeping the place open.

If that happens, again, Cold Wars will be held there.

Keep that glass half full, you'll live a lot longer.

If the sale does not go through and the hotel continues to operate, then Cold Wars will be held there.

you connect the sale/lack of with what the current owners WILL do vis a vis continued operations.

THAT is not a given. One does not lead to the other.

You could form a line of logic that by offering the property up for the sale, the current owners no longer wish to actively operate the business.

Certainly a possible response would be to close down the operations to minimize operating losses…..regardless if the property sold at auction or subsequently.

They could elect to shutter the place at any moment now that it is clear they want out.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Not sure if History Gamers response was in response to mine, but I never asserted anything about motive/desire or assurances for the Host to breach. I am asking if anyone [not likely] on these threads have any insight into the nature of the cancellation clauses of the contract. It may not be an impediment to either party to pull that trigger, depending on the details.

Just idle curiosity.

Here's the latest on the auction and the BoD's response:

TMP link

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst"…………yeah, ok, anyway; read the link, two of the bidders plan on keeping the place open if they buy it.

The hotel has also said they are still open, so the current owners are still maintaining a business, so no shuttering going on anytime soon.

So there you go.

Unless….

1. The present owner closes, as described above to cut costs, or

2. The new owner closes to gut the place as quickly as possible to reopen as soon as possible.

Please note that while new owners may or may not honor the contracts, either way it would take some time and not a little effort to refurbish the place. So imagine that work going on while we try to have a convention there. What would be the impact of that? Complete unknown.

Also, what is to say a new owner doesn't sell some of the land off, or tear down some of the facilities as well. There is a range of options here, not just open or closed. Speculation, I grant you, but anything is possible.

At the very least the BoD should be seriously considering moving FI, even if for just one year until the dust settles. Pun intended. :-)

A simple risk analysis would put this off the charts of endangering two of next year's three cons.

No mcaras, I was not responding to your post, at least intentionally.

My money is betting the Bod will simply move Cold Wars to Fredericksburg. It's the least work. Besides, having tied themselves to the mast of "Fredericksburg is the best location in the whole wide world" and extolling how wonderful it is, it's hard to make the case for anywhere ELSE for it's twin, Cold Wars.

As for Fall In, I think that this year was the last year for it. Historicon and Cold Wars at the host used to be cash cows. Now I have it from many that Historicon is break even and Cold Wars is the cash cow. With Cold Wars in Fredericksburg there will be two break even conventions and Fall In would be a definite loser. So they can't move it to Fburg, so they'll just drop it.

Why would a northern BOD move Cold Wars south? North Jersey is a good possibility.

Interesting article about the Host in today's Lancaster newspaper………….

link

Otto also believed that the Host would be here after we are all dead and gone. Based on the BODs recent communications you can see that they are in fact in the process of vetting a "short list" of other sites and they have been at this for some time.

TRU

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst"…………yeah, ok, anyway; read the link, two of the bidders plan on keeping the place open if they buy it.

The hotel has also said they are still open, so the current owners are still maintaining a business, so no shuttering going on anytime soon.

So there you go.

Thanks Double…I did read it. And this demonstrates how different people can get a different meaning from reading the same thing.

I took it to mean two buyers were interested in developing a hospitality property, NOT keep operating current physical plant.

See in the link posted by BTC, the following opinion.

"Steve Sikking is the managing partner of the Eden Resort and Suites and general partner of the Fulton Steamboat Inn.

The Host, he said, "is a complicated, aged product that would be difficult to renovate to anything that would make sense today," he said.

Even if the property remains a hotel, a new owner would probably want to tear down what's there and rebuild, Sable and others said. Potential buyers will be figuring those costs into their offers, Sable said.

The thing is, a typical hotel project these days only needs 3 acres or so, Sikking said. In the Host's case, what do you do with rest of the land?

You could build a brand-new resort, but it's hard to envision such a project making financial sense, Sikking said.

Even an ordinary hotel is costly to build, let alone a resort, and Lancaster area hoteliers can only charge so much without pricing themselves out of the market. "

So, assuming they do a tear down and replace, it would take the "Host" as we know out of circulation for some period of time….and who knows its reincarnation would be suitable.

Only time will tell. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst…indeed is all we can do at this time.

So there WE go.

Otto,If I was a betting man I would say your wrong on everything…You might even bat 1000…

rmcaras; after reading the article Doug posted, let's cut to the chase.

We're screwed.

After reading your points and opinions, let's cut to the chase.

We're really screwed and like you said, I think it's time to prepare for the worst.

What a shame.

How complicated a plot of land that is to even buy. No wonder it didn't have many bidders.