A candid interview with Comic-Con's Director of Marketing & PR regarding the rumors about Comic-Con International's possible change of venue

Barry Robb - www.uglycouchshow.com February 28, 2010

Every summer for over 40 years, geeks of all walks of life have descended upon San Diego by the tens of thousands to attend Comic-Con International, a non-stop 5-day mega-convention celebrating comics, movies, pop culture and the visual arts.  It's almost a required coming-of-age pilgrimage for any fan of pop culture.  And for 40 years, San Diego has proudly hosted Comic-Con and made welcome its 125,000+ visitors, but recent rumors and speculation about the host city of choice being subject to change have left long time convention attendees wondering where they will be going on their yearly vacation after 2012, when the convention's contract with the San Diego Convention Center expires.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported that Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Anaheim have reached out to CCI in hopes of luring the convention away from San Diego with promises of more convention space, more hotel rooms, discounted rates for attendees and more.  However, San diego area businesses are making their own efforts to keep the massive convention right where it is.  Comic-Con organizers are expected to make a decision about the future of the con within a few months.

We asked David Glanzer, PR spokesman for Comic-con International, to help shed some light on these rumors.



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Barry: Hey comic-con fans, Barry here from the ugly couch show. We're talking with David Glanzer, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Comic-Con International.  David, welcome and thanks for speaking with us.

David: Well, thank you for having me!

Barry: Comic-Con's contract with the San Diego Convention Center expires in 2012, and there's been some rumors online that Comic-Con might be leaving San Diego in 2013.  Rather than listen to baseless rumors and speculations, we thought we'd go right to the source and ask, what's going on?

David: Well, you're correct; our contract expires in 2012.  One of the things we've been dealing with is a limit in terms of space...We can't allow any more people in the building.. and we can't allow any more exhibitors to display on our floor.  Those are two really big issues for us, primarily because that's our main sources of income.  When you cap your source of income, but your expenses continue to rise, obviously at some point you're going to upside down.  what's happened over the last few months is convention facilities in other cities have put forth proposals basically saying why they think their city woudl be a good fit for Comic-Con.

Barry:  It's true that San Diego is the nation's most walkable city.  It's not uncomfortably hot at the end of july, and there's a nice breeze from the ocean.  If that were the only factor, I'm sure the con wouldn't even consider moving, but unfortunately it's not.  Can you tell us some of the pros and cons are, from comic-con international's perspective, of keeping comic-con in San Diego?

David:  You bring up a very good point, and that's that there's a great deal San Diego has to offer.  One of our big problems is that we have a finite amount of space.  One of the things we've done at the convention cetner downtown is to erect tents to try to maximize space behind the center.  It's not inexpensive to do that, but we just need more and more space.

Barry:  I'm sorry; are you talking about the tents outside of Hall H?

David:  No, no, tents outside on the mezzanine level.  A lot of people don't see them, but if you were to walk on the the mezzanine level or in the sales pavillion area, in the back there's some areas that are...I think any other convention would use that as a smoking area or a lounge area.  In many of those areas we've erected tents to handle overflow from autograph signings or segments of registration or things of that nature.  We've really trying