City offers $500,000 to keep Comic-Con in San Diego
More than 125,000 fans went to last year’s Comic-Con convention.
After four decades together, San Diego doesn’t want to part with Comic-Con. That’s why the city has recently offered a half-million dollars in hotel tax revenue to help pay the organizers’ shuttle system costs.
San Diego’s contract with Comic-Con International expires in 2012. The Tourism Marketing District agreed to budget $100,000 annually throughout a five-year period if the convention organizers agree to stay in San Diego for an additional three years.
Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said the additional funds would help defray some of the costs to shuttle attendees to the annual fan convention. Still, organizers have not yet decided where Comic-Con’s future home will be.
“Without getting into the specific proposals, there are negatives to each proposal we’ve received and there are positives to each proposal we’ve received,” Glanzer said. “That’s why we’re fielding these offers and trying to make a decision that is best for the event and those who attend.”
San Diego is competing with Anaheim and Los Angeles, two nearby tourist destinations that have larger convention centers.
Glanzer said last year, organizers had to turn away more than 400 potential exhibitors and cap attendance at about 125,000 people because of the cramped space at the San Diego Convention Center. Another concern is high hotel room rates, he added.
“I will say, however, that the city is trying to work with us to mitigate those problems and we’ve got proposals from other cities that are trying to address those issues as well,” Glanzer said.
Comic-Con is an important convention for the region, especially now with the struggling economy, according to Lorin Stewart, the executive director of the San Diego Tourism Marketing District.
“Comic-Con has grown here in San Diego and has become part of the fabric of what the city is all about,” Stewart said. “The timing is traditionally a busy time of the year, but certainly with the downturn in the economy, we’re even more appreciative to guarantee these hotel rooms.”
According to a Comic-Con International survey conducted two years ago, attendees spend about $60 million throughout the four-day event.
This year’s convention, which takes place July 22-25, marks the 41st event. Single day tickets and four-day passes are already sold out.
Aside from revenue, the convention also puts San Diego in the limelight.
“For a couple weeks out of the year, San Diego is the comic book and pop culture center of the universe,” Glanzer said. “That generates the news, not only locally, but nationally and internationally, so it’s a great advertising piece for San Diego.”
A decision on whether Comic-Con will remain a San Diego attraction is expected later this month.
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