INDIANAPOLIS – GenCon has left town till next summer, after setting some records along the way.

Nearly 70-thousand gamers attended the four-day game convention, the equivalent of the entire population of Lafayette passing through the convention center. That may or may not be a record. Last year’s attendance was reported at more than 60-thousand, but Chris Gahl says reconciling advance and on-site purchases, paper and electronic tickets, and four-day and single-day attendees makes the preliminary count imprecise.

But GenCon says it set records with nearly 20-thousand events and more than 500 exhibitors. Gahl says the exhibitor figure is particularly important, since the buying and selling of games is at the heart of the business side of the convention. GenCon also reported a record number of gamers purchasing admission for the entire four-day run.

Gahl says the convention pumped 70-million dollars into Indiana’s economy. That impact stretches beyond downtown Indianapolis. Gahl says people booked hotels as far away as Lafayette and Bloomington.

Those faraway hotel bookings reflect a potential trouble spot the city is working to address. Two new hotels on Pan Am Plaza and a convention center expansion are scheduled to be complete by 2023, when GenCon’s current contract expires. Gahl says GenCon and other conventions are watching the progress of those projects to make sure they have the space they need. And he says rival cities are watching too, sending visitors’ bureau staff to this year’s convention to study the layout and make plans to woo the convention away.

Gahl says there’s plenty of room in Lucas Oil Stadium to handle GenCon’s continuing growth until the contract expires. He says VisitIndy and GenCon meet six times a year to discuss what logistical changes may be needed.

The convention is Indy’s biggest. It’s called Indianapoils home since 2003 after an 18-year run in Milwaukee. It’s doubled in size since then.