Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

KPBS Evening Edition

Business Report: COVID-19 Forces Cancellation Of Comic-Con, Other Major Events

Comic-Con visitor Sapphire Nova rides an electric scooter down a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue wearing a Supergirl costume, July 18, 2019.
Andrew Bowen
Comic-Con visitor Sapphire Nova rides an electric scooter down a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue wearing a Supergirl costume, July 18, 2019.

BottomLine Marketing co-founder and SDSU marketing lecturer Miro Copic discusses some of the week’s top business stories with KPBS News.

Q: This week we saw some major summer events canceled, which means more jobs and income lost. What kind of role do events like Comic-Con, Pride, and the fair play when it comes to our local jobs scene?

RELATED: San Diego Comic-Con Canceled Over Coronavirus, Plans 2021 Return

Advertisement

A: Comic-Con over four days is $150 million. The fair is $250 million of economic impact. And even Pride, even though economic impact is $26-27 million, it is the largest civic event we have in San Diego. 350,000 people were expected to go and be part of that. What does this mean? That means just for those activities and events, over $625 million of lost economic impact to businesses in San Diego and the city of San Diego. This can actually impact the sales tax that the city of San Diego collects by tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue. This is one of the major issues that Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced the other day. They're going to have to look at what kind of budget cuts are going to have to occur and what kind of services might need to be pulled back. Because with all these impacts, those are big chunks of the budget that are lost.

VIDEO: Business Report: COVID-19 Forces Cancellation Of Comic-Con