Calgary Expo Costs: Fan Prices Surge to New Highs

CALGARY — The price of fandom just hit a new high, and the average Comic-Con faithful aren't happy about it. Calgary Expo attendees are sounding the alarm over soaring costs that have transformed a once-accessible fan celebration into a luxury experience priced for the one percent.

The math is brutal. Want an autograph from your favorite star? That'll be $150–$200. Add a photo op and you're staring down a $400-plus hit before you've even walked the floor. Tack on your $149–$159 four-day pass, and suddenly your weekend nostalgia trip costs more than a mortgage payment.

The Money Machine

Calgary Expo isn't run by scrappy fans in a garage. It's operated by Fan Expo HQ, a subsidiary of Informa PLC, a UK-based multinational that reported an 11.1% revenue jump in its events division through the first ten months of 2024. The April 2025 VIP Pass? $499. Photo ops and autographs are farmed out to third-party vendor Epic Photo Ops, which sets its own pricing tiers. Celebrity talent and their agents control the baseline costs, creating a perfect storm of profit-taking with no single entity holding the bag.

Andrew Moyes, Vice President of Fan Expo HQ, oversees operations. The pricing? That's a private business decision, thank you very much.

The Economic Pitch vs. The Fan Squeeze

The event pulls around 100,000 people annually to Calgary's BMO Centre, which just wrapped a $500 million expansion that doubled its space and officially opened June 5, 2025. The city loves the numbers: the expanded facility is projected to generate roughly $100 million in annual economic impact. Tourism Calgary's 2024 report clocked total visitor spend at $2.9 billion, with big events like Expo carrying the load.

But here's the tension: the city cashes in on the crowd, the corporate owners cash in on the tickets, and the fans? They're left choosing between rent and a Polaroid with someone who played a stormtrooper in 1983.

Talk Community, Charge Premium

Moyes has spent the past year talking up the "community," "passion," and "sense of belonging" at Fan Expo events. What he hasn't talked about? Affordability. Fans aren't asking for free. They're asking not to be priced out of their own culture.

The warning from the floor is clear: keep squeezing, and you'll kill the vibe. What made Calgary Expo electric was the mix—cosplayers on a budget rubbing elbows with superfans who'd mortgage the house for a signed poster. Push too hard toward "ultra-high income only," and you're left with an empty convention hall that smells like money but feels like nothing at all.

The 2026 event dates are already set. The question is who'll still be able to afford to show up.