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The decision to move last year's E3 Business &Media Summit from Los Angeles to Santa Monica cost organisers more thanUSD 5 million.
According to IRS documents obtained by Kotaku,the ESA paid USD 5,377,808 in event cancellation fees in order to getout of its contract with the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Thetax documents also show that ESA membership dues more than quadrupledfor the 2006 fiscal year - from more than USD 1 million to over USD 4.5million.
"In the past the membership dues here weredeflated significantly because of income that was coming from othersources including the summit," said ESA senior VP of communications andresearch Rich Taylor.
"Now we're closer to what other trade associations charge."
Taylorrefused to call last year's move to Santa Monica a mistake - despitethe fact that the show will be returning to the Los Angeles ConventionCenter this year.
Quote:
"There was a model in Santa Monica that wetried and after the event we polled participants across the board aboutwhat they thought of it and then we tried to figure out what we coulddo to make it better and returning to the Los Angeles Convention Centerwas the right decision," he told Kotaku.
While not specifically blaming higher fees, Activision, Vivendi and LucasArts have all canceled their ESA memberships recently.
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