Looks like the San Diego Convention Center is one step closer to expansion, according to a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune website-- an expansion which will cost the city approximately $753 million. If the city wants to keep "blockbuster events" from leaving San Diego, including but not limited to Comic Con International, then the move to expand is crucial. According to the article, the Port of San Diego has agreed to work with the convention center "for the expansion and a long-desired hotel after negotiating a deal with a private business group that controls the 7-acre bayfront plot in downtown San Diego where the two projects would be built." What this means is that the two groups will meet to discuss the environmental repercussions of expansion, weigh the public opinion regarding expansion, evaluate the building design and most importantly, figure out how to pay for it all.
If you have been following the 'what to do with San Diego Comic Con' conversation, then I am sure you have heard whispers of the possibility of moving Comic Con International to a larger venue. Back in February Comic Vine caught up with Comic Con International's Director of Marketing and Public Relations, David Glanzer regarding the logistics of expansion and the probability of moving the convention to a different city. When we spoke, Glanzer had been fairly positive about keeping the show in San Diego.
== TEASER ==
There is no question that the people who run Comic Con International want to keep the show in San Diego, yet the prospect of doing so had become unrealistic-- until now. Over the course of the last several years, Comic Con International had grown too large to accommodate the demand of people who wished to attend the convention, so the news that the city wishes to work with the convention on expansion could not come at a better time.I don't think anyone wants to move, but there are many people that want to come to the show that can't...The city has been working with local hotels for more space [rooms as well as conference areas to accommodate the rapid increase in the number of attendees]. San Diego is a great location...the gas lamp, meeting space, nearby hotels...we have to weigh our proposals.
I for one could not think of a better city to host Comic Con International; so to see that the city is taking a step in this direction leaves me hopeful. What do you think?“This is the first step that you have to do,” Mayor [of the city of San Diego] Jerry Sanders said. “You have to get everybody on the same page … and then we can go through and start refining costs, start refining what the design is going to be. But you can’t even do those things until you get this initial thing done.”
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