Predictions for next week’s fresh TLD lottery

We’re pretty much guaranteed that something won’t go as planned.

Tickets for next week’s fresh top level domain “prioritization draw” went on sale this morning.

The draw will take place on Monday on Los Angeles.

Despite the big money at stake for applicants, I predict there will be a few snafus. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened in the fresh TLD process.

But this time it might technically be at the fault of an applicant rather than ICANN.

Here are a few things I could see happen:

1. Applicants will show up without the required documentation or identification.

They’ll have to scramble to get the documentation in place. If they show up Monday, they might miss out on getting tickets.

Judging by questions during the prior week’s webinar regarding the prioritization draw, the documentation requirements aren’t that simple.

2. At least one applicant will be surprised when they don’t hear their name drawn.

For some reason, they don’t have a ticket in the draw despite thinking they do.

3. At least one IDN applicant won’t buy a ticket, thinking they’ll be prioritized anyway.

IDN applicants that don’t buy a ticket will get a slot following everyone who did buy a ticket.