ANOTHER UNIVERSE
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2015
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by Tommy Anderson on the scene!
San Diego, California held host once again to the largest “Nerd Fest” in the world on
July 8th to the 12th, 2015, under the title of Comic-Con International. It is truly an
experience beyond comparison to other events of its type.
There are numerous other smaller Comic-Con’s hosted internationally around the
globe but they are really just a fraction of the size of this one. In fact in recent years
the Comic-Con powers-that-be have considered moving the convention, with
Anaheim or Los Angeles, California being the biggest contenders. The main reason is
that Comic-Con has grown in size by leaps and bounds and has vastly outgrown the
San Diego Convention Center. The San Diego Convention Center itself is a beautiful
gigantic complex that blends perfectly with the surrounding harbor waterfront, the
historic Gaslamp Quarter, and the downtown area.
This is the 45th year of the Comic-Con International being based in San Diego and the
convention center has expanded steadily with the increase in attendance to this event.
In 1970 when the first Com-con was held in San Diego it had an attendance of
approximately 100 people. The 2015 Comic-Con attendance was roughly 150,000.
Now that number can be misleading because that is just the tickets sold for the 4 day
event.
You can add about another 100,000 people on top of that who crowd into the downtown area from Petco Park to the Gas Lamp
Quarter to see the activities outside of the convention center.
Additionally, there are roughly 3000 media attendees from
all over the world. Comic-Con is a great financial boost to
the San Diego area with a healthy injection of around
$136,000,000.00 being brought into the city during these 5
days (Wednesday Preview Night and 4 days of the
convention). In 2015 15% of the entire attendance figures
for all events at the convention center are from Comic-Con.
This year it is estimated that there will be about 17 million
dollars in revenue to Comic-Con, a nonprofit, with them
paying out roughly 15 million dollars in expenses. It was
announced at Comic-Con this year that the Comic-Con
International Board agreed to a 2 year contract extension
with no plans for expansion of the convention center but
they said after 2017 it has to be a negotiating point.
Personally I can’t see the city not agreeing to this 7with the