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Posted by Transmute Jun on 23-03-2010 at 20:02:

Comic Con move to Anaheim?

According to this article (keep in mind it's from an Anaheim/LA paper) the San Diego Comic Con, where our 'GatchaCon' takes place every year, might move to Anaheim! I'd certainly be up for a joint Comic Con/Disneyland trip every year!

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/20/business/la-fi-comic-con20-2010mar20

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Posted by clouddancer on 23-03-2010 at 20:34:

Interesting .... in three years hmmmm? We will see what happens.

I had to wonder about this line though, The organizers are contemplating a future home with more meeting space and cheaper hotel rooms.

How long do you think hotel rooms would stay "cheap" when the owners realize they will have an increase of 125,000 people in their area?

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 23-03-2010 at 21:50:

One can only hope 'cheaper' relative to similar rooms in LA. On the other hand, motel operators depend on travelers. Tourist season makes all the difference. An extra $100 tacked onto room prices during the season can determine whether or not the place remains in business at all. (Which does not help the working poor who cannot save the deposit on an apartment, and have to live in motels and extended-stay places tourism-dependent towns.)

I live in a smallish town (20,000 people) in Central Georgia. I have one-bedroom apartment for $460 a month (utilities separate). By comparison, a bed-sitter in the Atlanta area starts at about $600 a month (depending on the neighborhood). I don't want to think what one in LA or San Francisco costs.

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Posted by amethyst on 23-03-2010 at 23:20:

UW, I'm about an hour north of San Francisco, and I'm paying $1250 for a two bedroom apt. and that is cheap in the area without being subsidized housing. We recently moved out of a 3+ bedroom house that was about to fall down (electrical not up to code, would fail any inspection and owned by a contractor), a bargain in the area at $1800, but we couldn't afford to keep paying that.

Though I do wonder at the Anaheim area being cheaper than San Diego. I would have thought it to be the other way around.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 23-03-2010 at 23:21:

FWIW, UW, an extra $100 tacked onto the hotel room price for the San Diego Comic Con would be a steal. Most places are charging 2-4 times their normal 'top rate'. Even high season rates at Disneyland hotels would be cheaper than what they charge for a Comic Con hotel room. So yeah, they'll be pricey, relative to Anaheim rates, but I'm better it would still be cheaper than San Diego rates, because there are so many hotels right next to both Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center.

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Posted by UnpublishedWriter on 24-03-2010 at 00:43:

I was guessing at $100 dollars extra. (If I had a struggling motel, that's probably at least what I'd add in various seasons. I'm also a bit of a softie, and would want to make sure my 'permanent' residents didn't have to scrimp.)

$1250 for a two-bedroom apartment!?!? Better be in a very nice neighborhood. (Can find a 1-bedroom in Atlanta for $700 or so, but I can't recall prices on larger. It's all about location.)

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Posted by amethyst on 24-03-2010 at 01:29:

quote:

$1250 for a two-bedroom apartment!?!? Better be in a very nice neighborhood. (Can find a 1-bedroom in Atlanta for $700 or so, but I can't recall prices on larger. It's all about location.)

The whole street is a cul de sac full of apartments, the nicest ones are on the corner and face onto another street and are currently being remodeled and empty. The street is packed with cars as most buildings only have parking for one car and many are filled with upper-low-income/low-middle-income farm laborers or retail workers. The only thing really nice is everyone works hard yet has no money so there's not much crime as there's nothing to steal.

The same can't be said for the nicer area's of town, where people leave their cars unlocked with the keys in them because the whole town has like a 5% crime rate or less mostly drug or dui convictions with the occasional wanna-be-gang-banger or poor-little-rich-kid who decide to jack stereos or joy ride. I can count on my hands the number of rapes and murders we've had in the last five years and I believe the last murder was about three years ago and my husband coached the guy and his brothers in Little League (he killed his step-father who was physically abusive to his mother; we hope he is living well and free in Mexico).

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 24-03-2010 at 02:50:

quote:

Originally posted by amethyst
Though I do wonder at the Anaheim area being cheaper than San Diego. I would have thought it to be the other way around.

Supply and demand. There aren't nearly enough hotels in San Diego that are right next to the Convention Center. They gouge like crazy during Comic Con, simply because they can.

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Posted by amethyst on 24-03-2010 at 03:00:

And then cities wonder why the kept loosing conventions to places like Las Vegas or other large tourist draws. I can understand the gouging, I just didn't expect Anaheim to be that much cheaper, but then they probably don't have much seasonal variance, either.

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Posted by green on 24-03-2010 at 03:08:

Wow - and you people are talking American dollars too...

Suppose you would hate to hear that I pay $700 a month (Australian) for a three bedroom house with a huge yard in a very nice area in the foothills...

And that's my mortgage and I'm paying about $200 more than I need to so I can pay the place off faster...

I love my little city!

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Posted by amethyst on 24-03-2010 at 03:20:

I think when the kids are gone, hubby and I need to retire to Australia. It might work, that's the one country that he would really like to visit.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 24-03-2010 at 14:16:

California isn't cheap for real estate... at least, not in the urban areas. We're one of the most expensive states in the country for that.

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Posted by tatsunokofan on 24-03-2010 at 17:13:

Hi all!

The thought that Comic Con might leave San Diego and what it would mean to the city hasn't been lost on San Diego either, as these articles attest:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/21/cause-for-con-cern/

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/13/hotels-urged-to-help-keep-comic-con-in-town/

This is something that has been coming for years. The con itself made this obvious they were figuring on leaving at some point when they officially changed their name from San Diego Comic Con to Comic Con International, thereby eliminating the tie to a specific city. There was great expectation that the con would leave town a few years ago, before they signed the contract to keep the con in San Diego through 2012.

I would guess that there's only a 50/50 chance that they'll agree stay in San Diego a few more years, and that would only be because the con has been there for 41 years and because the city is bending over backward to get them to stay. However, unless something drastic happens over the next few years to expand the available convention space, that would likely be the last extension the convention would give to the city.

Of course, anyone who truly believes that the hotels and motels in Anaheim (Or Los Angeles, or Las Vegas, or any other city that puts in a bid for the convention) won't raise their rates during the convention is fooling themselves. Yes, some hotels will set aside some rooms as part of a "convention block," but you can be sure that all their other rooms will be available for the kind of prices that one would expect to find only on major holiday weekends -- if not higher. It may take a year or two for all of them to catch on, but once the hoteliers figure it out, greed will kick in.

I can't help but think that, once Comic Con does inevitably leave San Diego, someone would be smart to start a replacement comic convention in the city during the summer. They might not have the cachet of the name, but the demand for such a convention in San Diego would certainly still be there.

James

Posted by tatsunokofan on 02-04-2010 at 00:06:

Hi all!

The battle continues.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/30/battle-for-comic-con-playing-out-on-facebook/

James

Posted by Transmute Jun on 02-04-2010 at 01:03:

Interesting... They definitely need more space in the convention center, and more available hotel rooms. If Anaheim can provide that, I'm all for the move.

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Posted by lborgia88 on 02-04-2010 at 03:59:

I see that Anaheim has an airport, but do a lot of flights go there? Or would most people have to fly into LAX and then figure out a way to get to Anaheim?

Posted by tatsunokofan on 02-04-2010 at 04:12:

Hi all!

Anaheim has no public airport, just the privately owned Orange County Steel Salvage Heliport. Most people would fly into either LAX or John Wayne and take shuttles, buses, or taxis to their destination.

James

Posted by amethyst on 02-04-2010 at 04:15:

My mother flew into John Wayne, I think (Orange County, right?) and it is quite small for big planes. Very steep accents and descents. She said she'd never fly into there again.

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Posted by lborgia88 on 02-04-2010 at 04:16:

Oh, I just looked at a list of airport codes, and there was one for Anaheim -it must be very small.

According to google maps, LAX is 34 miles (an hour and ten minutes in traffic) from Anaheim whereas the San Diego airport is 2.7 miles (8 minutes) from the San Diego Convention Center.

For me, that's a difference that would be significant!

Posted by Transmute Jun on 02-04-2010 at 15:44:

The good thing though is that there are lots of smaller airports around LA area, and Southwest serves them all. I've flown into Orange County/John Wayne many times on Southwest and it's always been easy to do.

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