Comic-Con reboot rumors resurface
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The San Diego Com-Con crowd last year. Photo: Araya Doheny/Getty Images
Comic-Con is again hinting at a post-San Diego reboot.
Why it matters: The annual pop culture celebration draws some 135,000 attendees and $165 million in overall spending — good for a $3.2 million tax infusion to city coffers, per SDSU's Fowler College of Business.
Driving the news: Comic-Con International signed a one-year contract extension earlier this month to stay in San Diego through 2026, but it rejected the San Diego Tourism Authority's two-year offer because organizers want more reserved hotel rooms.
What they're saying: Without reserved rooms that have set prices, hotels can spike rates during the busy summer season, which could price out attendees from the marquee four-day event, said David Glanzer, a Comic-Con official.
- "As much as we wouldn't want to leave, never say never," he told the UT.
By the numbers: Comic-Con received a block of 14,000 rooms this year, and Glanzer said the event anticipates receiving less than it wants next year, but extended its contract for 2026 as a good-faith gesture it'll get its rooms.
Between the lines: The threat of Comic-Con pulling up stakes and taking its cosplaying cash machine to another market has lingered for years.
- Attempts to expand the Convention Center by increasing hotel taxes in 2012 and 2016, and again in 2020, all cited retaining Comic-Con as a major benefit.
- But, as far back as 2015, Glanzer said expensive hotel rooms — not convention space — are Comic-Con's biggest foe.
The bottom line: Comic-Con has continually signed extensions to stay in town even as it's publicly negotiated for more convention space and cheaper hotel rooms.