The wildly popular Comic-Con International convention, which attracts comic book and movie fans from around the world, will be held at the San Diego Convention Center through 2016, its operators and Mayor Jerry Sanders announced today.
City officials and the organizers of the celebration of pop culture said they agreed to a one-year extension of their current contract. Details, such as room rates at area hotels, still need to be worked out, said David Glanzer, Comic-Con's director of marketing and communications.
Comic-Con, the largest annual attraction in San Diego, draws nearly 130,000 attendees annually and has outgrown the convention center, which prompted tourism officials from other cities to tempt organizers of the show to move elsewhere a few years ago. In the last couple of years, the convention has spread into nearby hotels and parks.
"This plan is working right now,'' Glanzer said. "If we can all continue to work together over the next few years, we should all be happy campers.''
City officials hope to start construction on an expansion of the center next year and have it open for business in 2016.
Sanders said Comic-Con turns the Gaslamp Quarter into a "high-tech Twilight Zone'' with great people-watching.
"It's not only an enormous source of pride, it's an enormous source of revenue for San Diego -- for the city, for the hotels, for the shops and for the restaurants. The economic impact is out of this world,'' Sanders said.
The convention pumps $180 million into the local economy and provides the city of San Diego with $3 million in sales and hotel room tax income, Sanders said.
That revenue goes directly to city services, like public safety and library hours, according to Councilwoman Lorie Zapf. The convention center expansion will allow Comic-Con to host more attendees and conduct more panels, so there will be more jobs to support them, she said.
Glanzer said the extension was not predicated on the promised expansion, but the project will be a factor for a subsequent agreement.
The convention was started in 1970 as a modest comic book fair and has since grown into a premier pop culture extravaganza. It hasn't been determined when tickets for the general public will go on sale for the 2013 show, but it won't be until next year, Glanzer said.
