And Now They’re Talking About a Comic-Con museum in Balboa Park

While there are thousands of comic-cons around the world, there is still only one Comic-Con, and that’s the one in San Diego. Comic-Con International, the non-profit organization that runs the big show has been upping its profile a bit in the last year or so, with their Comic-Con HQ SVOD channel, art exhibits at the San Diego Library and talk of a glitzy award show, and other behind the scenes stuff. And now there is yet more TALK, this time of a possible Comic-Con museum. It seems that there is a big 68,000 square foot venue called the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park, but there are not enough champions to fill it so maybe a museum of nerd prom is the way to go. So an announcement that there were discussions was made.

“I heard they might be interested in doing something, so I made contact and began a conversation, and it’s been going on for awhile,” said Hall of Champions board member Dan Shea. “We have a space that could be considered under-utilized for what we have. Comic-Con is an iconic community group, and we would love to see them stay here, so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a museum for them in our hometown. And that’s what we talk about when we get together now and then.”

But no deal has been reached, and it could be some time before a museum even materializes, Shea acknowledged.

“There’s no hurry to move it along,” he said.

Apparently this idea has been floating around for a while. A museum was part of the now-all-but-doomed expansion plans for the convention center, and those pesky Chargers also wanted to put a Comic-Con museum in the dual use stadium/exhibition space that they want to build downtown. It appears to be a very tempting cherry on all of the dreamed of sundaes for expanding facilities in San Diego.

The Hall of Champions site seems tempting in another way, but as the people involved said, it’s still very much a far off pie in the sky, to continue the dessert metaphors.

Above image via the Comic-Con site.