If you think the general public were more drawn to Ronnie's physique more than say Samsons and Andrew's, well I have to strongly disagree. Guys the whole general public liking BBing physiques ship sailed in the mid 80's. Show ANYONE in the general public a peak Lee Haney and you will get the same negative reaction you get for Coleman or any other bbing great. The general public thinks guys like Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel and Mark Whalberg are "jacked."
The reason the expo is small is we are STILL recovering from the stupid CV and in case you have not noticed the economy is not exactly roaring. Think Big Bodybuilding's "It's Just Bodybuilding" talked about the cost involved with such booths as the "Animal Cage" as the expo is a union facility and you pay PER POUND to have EVERYTHING at your booth carried from the dock/loading area to your booth spot. Think about the MASSIVE cost involved to bring in that Animal Cage. Universal is also not as healthy of a company now as they were then. I run a supp store and have been on the retail end since 1999. Almost no one under the age of 25 ever asks for Universal/Animal and some have not even heard of the company. No they all want Ghost, Alpha Lion and other such shit. Like I said Universal has massively cut their sku's recently and I just don't think they want to drop the cash on the Arnold.