It depends on the size of the decline in attendance and whether it's within the range of planning. If the decline is so large that a convention fails to fill it's contracted room block, that's pretty much a death knell. That's what killed Confurence.
Duckon lost almost half it's attendance the year the furries broke off to form MFF (World Con was also in Chicago that year), but kept going for several more years because they'd planned on the drop.
RCFM was doomed far more by some monumentally bad decisions as far as hotels and staffing than by any decline in attendance.
FA:U could likely continue, but after a couple years off, it would be a lot like starting a brand new convention. Sure, you should have seed money, but in two years, how many of your old staff will still be up for doing it again? Some have likely moved to new locations by then. So then you have to try to fill those positions. You aren't a new convention in people's minds though so there would expectations which could be very hard to meet. I totally get that the staff of some conventions just won't want to climb that hill again.
It depends on the size of the decline in attendance and whether it's within the range of planning. If the decline is so large that a convention fails to fill it's contracted room block, that's pretty much a death knell. That's what killed Confurence.
Duckon lost almost half it's attendance the year the furries broke off to form MFF (World Con was also in Chicago that year), but kept going for several more years because they'd planned on the drop.
RCFM was doomed far more by some monumentally bad decisions as far as hotels and staffing than by any decline in attendance.
FA:U could likely continue, but after a couple years off, it would be a lot like starting a brand new convention. Sure, you should have seed money, but in two years, how many of your old staff will still be up for doing it again? Some have likely moved to new locations by then. So then you have to try to fill those positions. You aren't a new convention in people's minds though so there would expectations which could be very hard to meet. I totally get that the staff of some conventions just won't want to climb that hill again.