After a long and much delayed process that featured aggressive campaigns by Los Angeles and Anaheim to attract the show, Comic-con International: San Diego is going to stay at the San Diego Convention Center for the foreseeable future. Organizers of the giant comics and pop culture show have voted to stay in the city where Comic-con was launched in 1970.
A press conference is scheduled for today to reveal the details. However, according to published reports in the San Diego media, the decision to stay hinged on signed agreements with a block of 64 of the city’s hotels that commit them to discount hotel rates in the areas surrounding the Convention Center until at least 2015.
One of the primary complaints from Comic-con organizers has been exorbitant hotel rates during the show. In recent years the San Diego Comic-con has sold out months in advance and the 4-day show has been under a self-imposed cap of 125,000 attendees.
While the city government has often been accused of being indifferent to the show’s economic impact on San Diego, in recent years the city’s response has changed dramatically and San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has been at the forefront of a local movement to keep the show in San Diego. It has been estimated that the San Diego Comic-con generates about $163 million in economic impact in the city.
It is also being reported that the city of San Diego in conjunction with the hotel industry are working to provide free exhibition and meeting spaces to supplant the maxed out convention center.
