It's Detroit and Spokane

[gerisullivan]

The results are unofficial, but I've now had confirmation from multiple reliable sources (and seen the public Facebook pages):

Detroit will host the 2014 NASFiC. Congratulations to the entire bid team! I'll be there.

Spokane will host the 2015 Worldcon. kevin_standlee tweeted "Spokane wins on 3rd ballot with 645 votes over Helsinki's 610, after Orlando eliminated" and "Helsinki led 1st 2 rounds of #Worldcon site selection, but most of Orlando votes shifted to Spokane on final round."

Guests of Honor and other details about both conventions will be announced at the Sunday Site Selection Results Business Meeting.

Update #1: Bid websites: Detroit and Spokane. Convention websites will presumably launch during or after the Business Meeting.

Update #2: Kevin tweeted "Detroit wins 2014 #NASFiC 231-210 over Phoenix." Sunday's Business meeting is at 10am CDT.

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That is so disappointing. Spokane? Really? HAVE THEY BEEN THERE?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I found each of the 2015 bids problematic in one or more significant ways, but was most impressed by the Helsinki bid. I would have been delighted if Worldcon had gone there immediately following London regardless of whether would end up being able to attend neither, one, or both of them. (Finances and work load rather strongly suggest neither, but I haven't yet completely given up on being at LonCon and Shamrokon next year.)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Helsinki had the lead in first-preference votes; however, most of Orlando's voters had either No Preference or Spokane as their second preference, and therefore Spokane ended up winning.

In short, people who voted for Orlando in general either didn't care where it was otherwise, or wanted the other US site.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Yes. I do understand that. But I want Worldcons to be in interesting places with competent committees. I don't think Spokane meets either of those two requirements.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, at least I feel confident that the WSFS Business Meeting will be managed competently; I'm chairing it.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, that I can believe! :)

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the pre-con and Friday Orlando vote split pretty evenly on second place votes. It was the Saturday Orlando first place votes who by and large mostly had Spokane as second place. This would make sense as most of the Saturday vote was probably locals and probably not Smofs. It was suggested that Helsinki could have done better by pointing out there was a non-stop from Houston to Helsinki but not from Houston to Spokane. I think this is one of the many ways that Helsinki hurt itself by not pointing out flaws in other bids.

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

The biggest way Helsinki hurt itself was picking 2015 instead of 2016. KC looks like a soft target-- it lost in its last two attempts, and it seems like it's hardly trying this time around-- and there wouldn't have been the complicating factor of 2 Worldcons in Europe in a row. I really think it would have been a cakewalk.

Instead they're now rumored to be thinking about 2017, which would be up against two recent winners, or 2018, which, as currently followed by an unopposed Dublin bid for 2019 and and unopposed NZ bid for 2020, would be asking voters to contemplate at least three Worldcons in a row outside North America (four if Japan wins 2017), including two in a row in Europe.

I'm all for more Worldcons in non-English-dominated countries, but Helsinki is just not going to happen at this rate.