The grand-daddy of all Comic-Cons, the San Diego Comic-Con, sold out all tickets in less than an hour (59 minutes to be more exact) on February 21st, which is, by some estimates, a record-setting pace to move so many tickets. No doubt that left a lot of unhappy customers waiting in queue, given the incredibly high demand and need for a queue to begin with.
Comic-Con draws around 130,000 attendees annually. which amounts to stuffing most of the attendees from a CES in sprawling Las Vegas and its gargantuan convention center and hotels into the San Diego Convention Center and Gaslamp Quarter.
Comic-Con currently is committed to San Diego through at least 2016, in large measure because a 33% expansion to the too-small San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) was going to be approved via a proposed $520 million levy on nearby hotels, as has been reported by some. However, that measure was struck down in court in August last year. No alternative fund-raising option has since passed to address the space issue that dogs the SDCC.
To incentivize continued participation from organizers and attendees, “The tourism agency is currently seeking agreements from hotels in the Comic-Con convention room block to not raise their rates above 2016 levels for the years 2017 and 2018, but there are still some holdouts, said Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi. During last year’s convention, discounted nightly room rates ranged from a low of $161 a night to $380,” according to UT San Diego. Other cities, such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Anaheim, are reported to be pursuing the opportunity to host Comic-Con after 2016.
It’s possible if the powers that be in San Diego work some magic with their convention center, or any new tourism authority and venue organizer is hosting by 2017, they will be able to open the doors a little wider, while also making the registration process a little more hopeful and a little less painful. Then, more of the eager community seeking to attend Comic-Con “Prime” will get the chance to do so.
