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/...con20-2010mar20

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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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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

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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Perspective Alters Reality

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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Perspective Alters Reality

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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Perspective Alters Reality

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/...e-for-con-cern/

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/...ic-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

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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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

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!