You might recall that a while back I mentioned that Wizard’s Toronto Comic Con was not happening on March 24-25 at the Direct Energy Centre and that there was some confusion as to whether or not it was happening at all…

New dates and a new facility have been announced… April 14-15 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

This is an interesting change for a couple of reasons:

First, the change in facility is beneficial to the show, as the Direct Energy Centre just doesn’t work in getting people out. Update: The Wednesday press release claims unprecedented growth which is interesting considering that Wizard took less than half the space in 2011 as they did at their first show in 2010.

Second, it is an aggressive move against a number of other conventions as it:

(a) for the second year in a row conflicts with Reed Pop’s already announced C2E2 (April 13-15) in Chicago that same weekend – and looks like a deliberate counter-scheduling move,

(b) conflicts with Ad Astra (literary science fiction convention with some comic and media guests) again, also scheduled April 13-15 – as it did in 2010 (last year Hobbystar’s Fan Appreciation weekend conflicted with Ad Astra — AA just can’t seem to catch a break), and I have to wonder whether or not Renee will convince Joe Jusko (booked for AA) to switch over,

(c) it is just three weeks before TCAF 2012 (which is really not much of a conflict since TCAF is the better and stronger event – attracting a different audience), and finally

(d) is in Hobbystar’s facility (how did that happen?), around the traditional time of the year of it’s Fan Appreciation Toronto ComiCON, and is using a similar name… not much of an issue when it’s at a different facility at a different time of the year.

This move could reignite the “Con War”. Is this what anyone really wants to see happen again?