There has been a lot of speculation this year as to what would happen to San Diego Comic-Con once its contract with the city of San Diego, CA ended in 2012. Would it go to Las Vegas? Would it move to Los Angeles, which made a giant push both to Comic-Con International, but also to the comics media. Well, the speculation is over… for a few more years anyway. Comic-Con International has just issues this press release:
Official Press Release
San Diego – Comic-Con International: San Diego (Comic-Con), the largest comics convention of its kind in the world, today announced it will be staying in San Diego for the foreseeable future.
Comic-Con reached a self-imposed attendance limit at the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) in 2007 and has had to cap attendance at approximately 125,000 people each year since. In looking at ways to better accommodate the growing demand from attendees and exhibitors, the nonprofit organization considered proposals for a move to larger facilities in Los Angeles or Anaheim after the expiration of its SDCC lease in 2012. This decision keeps Comic-Con in San Diego through 2015.
“We are grateful for the tireless efforts all three cities put into to their proposals,” said David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations. “In the end, we feel this decision is the best for all those who attend Comic-Con and for the organization itself. We are happy that the community has worked with us to ensure that we remain here.”
Comic-Con was first held in 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel, where it attracted 300 people. As the event grew, subsequent homes included the downtown El Cortez Hotel in the 1970s and the San Diego Convention and Performing Arts Center in the 1980s. Comic-Con moved to the then newly built SDCC in 1991. Comic-Con celebrated its 41st year in 2010.
The San Diego Convention Center Corporation has scheduled a press conference for Friday, October 1 at 11:45 a.m. at Lobby E of the convention center.
About Comic-Con International:
Comic-Con International: San Diego (Comic-Con), the largest convention of its kind in the world, is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. In addition to its San Diego convention each summer, Comic-Con organizes the San Francisco–based WonderCon each spring and Alternative Press Expo each fall. On the web: Comic-Con.org, Facebook.com/comiccon, Twitter.com/comic_con.
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In looking at ways to better accommodate the growing demand from attendees and exhibitors, the nonprofit organization considered proposals for a move to larger facilities in Los Angeles or Anaheim after the expiration of its SDCC lease in 2012. This decision keeps Comic-Con in San Diego through 2015.
Does that make sense to anyone? Their efforts to prevent being sold-out lead them to stay in San Diego and be capped/sold-out.
It just seems like a really odd way to word it.
Oh well, maybe I can go to Comic-Con in 2016.
Yay, I’m happy to hear that it will be staying in San Diego for at least a few more years.
@KahunaBlair they could be using the move to buy time for San Diego to figure out how important the con is for the local economy, as further bargaining chips for future venues by showing how quickly they can sell out tickets, or further increasing revenues by decreasing supply and inflating the price, etc.
Great news. No offense LA or Anaheim (actually yes, total offense). But for those who have to make a trip to CC, SD is infinitely better. A great city to visit regardless. Where as LA, is LA. Ugh.
Wish that it would have gone to Vegas. I would have thought about attending then.
Doesn’t matter where they hold it, as long as SDCC continues to cater to and suck up to Hollywood, and continue to treat the majority of comics people like second class citizens, it will continue the current downward trend. The organizers -non-profit my Oklahoma ass!- are satisfied because it sells out, but the guests aren’t the priority only the bottom line is. Which makes Emerald City and WonderCon so much more pleasant to attend. I’m done with San Diego and a lot of dealers are too because of the treatment. I predict within five years, the majority of the comics dealers will be pushed out, then the smaller publishers, then Artists Alley, and it will eventually be Hollywood which now owns Marvel and DC, video game companies and Q list celebs looking for a way back in. Then they will drop the word “comic” from the masthead in the same way that Wizard has dropped their price guide and is moving away from comics. Once the implosion happens we will see how it will re-build itself.
At first glance, this seems terribly non-resolved, compared to what we were led to expect.
The rumors, at least, indicated an agreement where Comic-Con would sign onto a very long commitment to San Diego, in exchange for major investments in infrastructure / capacity.
This seems like a kick-the-can-down-the-road until-the-economy-improves sort of pause on the major issues, no?
Eh. This could work if San Diego actually treated the con right. Give us nerds the Padres stadium, don’t fuck us on the hotels, give us ferrys, and proper transportation and all the jazz.
Seriously, San Diego do it right.
F Sports? Sigh. I hate it when people play into the all the comic book nerd stereotypes.
@j206- Ditto