If you had a LAN party with a hundred people (100 devices; turn your damn cell phones off wifi) what router would you choose? Assume that you have as much bandwidth as you need from your ISP and you don't want to spend more than $500 (to be specific).
I'd set aside enough time/money to allow as many of them as possible to be wired, if they want to be. Cisco [1] do 24 ports for $157, there are cheaper non-gigabit on Amazon.<p><a href="http://www.telephonyware.com/telephonyware/products/cisco-sr224g.html?mv_pc=A00034&utm_source=bizrate&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=tw00939" rel="nofollow">http://www.telephonyware.com/telephonyware/products/cisco-sr...</a>
Probably four simultaneous dual-band APs on seven different channels. Look at <a href="http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view" rel="nofollow">http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view</a>