Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:27PM5 comments ›
Mon Jul 21, 2008 — by Van Jensen
L.A. and Vegas Vying for Comic-Con
Cities trying to take San Diego out of SDCC
As all interested parties get ready for this week's Comic-Con International, a couple other municipalities are preparing to try to wrest the massive convention away from its historic home in San Diego.
Both Los Angeles and Las Vegas have their eye on Comic-Con, according to Variety. The event's extreme growth has been a boon, but San Diego can't handle the demand anymore, Comic-Con marketing director David Glanzer said.
That means Comic-Con may have to embrace the marketing mayhem that became a fixture of E3 before it downsized a year ago. So, even with the convention locked into San Diego for the next four years, cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles are actively trying to lure Comic-Con away.
"We don't like to go in and infringe on other people's leases when they are in the middle of doing business," says Chris Meyer, VP of convention sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. Nevertheless, he admits, "We will be down in Comic-Con 2008 to have some discussions."
The way he sees it, Las Vegas has some dramatic advantages, including twice the floor space and a surplus of competitively priced hotel rooms. Meyers notes, "I've got more rooms on my corners than they do in most of their downtown area."
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Comments (5)
Vinnie Bartilucci (5:01 PM on Mon Jul 21, 2008)
I'd be curious to see how comics fans respond to the idea of the convention being in Vegas. I have a feeling many of the hardcore fans wouldn't go near the gaming tables (hell, they rarely leave the con floor to eat, let alone gamble), thus rendering the real reason Vegas tries to attract conventions and visitors pointless.
Having the con in LA would likely make Hollywood's participation in the show that much stronger, since it'd be in their backyard. That could, of course, be either good...or bad.
San Diego is in a precarious position. To the best of my knowledge, they have no other convention or event even CLOSE to the size of the SDCC all year. The choice they're faced with is, is it worth expanding the convention center to accomodate one show, with the risk of that extra space laying fallow the rest of the year? They'd have to spend a lot more time and money filling that extra capacity to make it truly pay. Add to that the traffic issues as all those fans pour into the (too small) highways leading there I doubt San Diego is going to build new highways to make one show happy. Of course, both of those changes could well turn SD into a good city to hold events in again.
Maybe San Diego's Mayor will come to regret his offhanded comments about "people with real talent" after last year's con after all.
Alan Coil (9:27 PM on Mon Jul 21, 2008)
Comics already had a convention in Vegas. It SUCKED. It sucked so bad that the retailers all took time to learn to play Texas Holdem between customers, and then had a tournament.
Vegas sits in the middle of the desert because the original builders wanted to be any place other than where dweebs were.
John Tebbel (10:55 PM on Mon Jul 21, 2008)
To quote Dan Blocker, "Anaheim?"
Remember the source? Send your guess to GeezerNews, care of this station.
Michael Davis (2:39 AM on Tue Jul 22, 2008)
L.A.? O H H E L L NO!!!! I live (most of year) in L.A. it's a HORRIBLE place to have a convention. JUST HORRIBLE. You can FORGET any type of night time flow in L.A. You can FORGET hanging outside the hotels to the wee hours. You can FORGET anything being OPEN after 2am. You can forget feeling welcome as we are in San Diego. You can FORGET feeling safe downtown. You can FORGET wearing any type of costume that has a fake weapon on it. This city JUST SUCKS when it comes to conventions, SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK! Shit I could write an entire article-wait-an entire BOOK on why I would rather have the con in Iraq than L.A.
I hate Vegas also but they do know how to host an convention. I think that the SDCC has enough clout to get San Diego to do whatever it would take to stay. Trust me if the con moves to L.A. that will END the era of the con as a place for fans and professionals it will become a place where people go away year TO SUCK.
Michael Davis (2:42 AM on Tue Jul 22, 2008)
I meant it will become a place where people go away EVERY year TO SUCK.
SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!SUCK SUCK SUCKITY SUCK!
SUCK!