“Will the San Diego Comic-Con move?” saga resurrected…sorta

Oh no not again! The likely dates for the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con have been revealed – the traditional July 19-22, time frame– but a few folks have bought up the fact that CCI and the city have to renegotiate for dates after that.

While a bit of mystery might remain, I suspect that this will not be another a massive will-they-or-won’t-they drama as it was last time. Last time the con agreed to stay in SD through 2017, and a one year extension was added hrough 2018. Now it is time to renegotiate, but a lot depends on the November ballot measure to add a dual use stadium/convention center in downtown:

The initiative would raise the city’s tax on hotel stays from 12.5 percent to 16.5 percent to pay for a $1.8 billion stadium and convention center in downtown’s East Village, next to Petco Park, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The Chargers would contribute $650 million for the stadium portion of the project, using $300 million from the NFL and $350 million from the team, licensing payments, sales of “stadium-builder” ticket options to fans, and other private sources.

The city would raise more than $1.1 billion by selling bonds that would be paid back with the higher hotel tax revenues. That $1.1 billion would cover the city’s $350 million contribution to building the football stadium, $600 million to build the adjoining convention-center annex, and $200 million for land, the newspaper reported.

A wide array of civic forces have gathered against this plan–if defeated, the Chargers would move to Los Angeles and a brand new stadium being built there for the Rams.

Comic-Con has come out against the “divided convention center” plan, although you could argue with all the offsites, we already have a divided show that sprawls all over downtown. If there is a new facility, I’m sure something will be moved there and life will go on but with added venues.

Of course all that hasn’t stopped people from saying Comic-Con should move. I really should not link to this click bait video by John Campea about how SDCC should move to Vegas, but…I already did. Campea argues that SDCC should move because the convention center is too small, it’s hard to get hotels, and traffic downtown is awful. You don’t say! None of these problems prevented folks from having a good time this year, and they are all just part of the experience now. People camp out because they want to, not because they have to. (You could walk right in to Hall H for the Marvel presentation this year.)

Really, these are not problems so severe that ANYONE should think of moving away from a locale that is inextricably linked with the event, and an event that makes $150 million for local businesses.

Plus, Vegas is shit in the summer. Come on now!

If Comic-Con ever does move, I believe LA would be the only logical destination. But I don’t think that will ever happen, not if sensible heads prevail.

The biggest issue in recent years has been hotel prices, and CCI negotiates aggressively to keep these down. It’s all relative, as close hotels are now well over $300 when all the taxes and fees are added in. I suspect AirBnB and other flexible solutions to finding a place to stay will become more and more popular in coming years.