It’s Comic Con week in San Diego. How big is the biggest convention of the year in San Diego every year now? Very big.
Close to 135-thousand fans will attend Comic Con and nearly 200 thousand people will spend time downtown checking out exhibits and events and checking out all those people dressed in cos-play.
As big as it has become….according to Forbes, the largest convention of its kind in the world, Comic Con started out as a very small one day gathering on March 21st 1970, at the U.S. Grant hotel.
Begun by a group of San Diegans that included the owner of an Ocean Beach comic book store, the first one was called “San Diego’s Golden State Comic Con”. It moved to the old El Cortez Hotel for seven years during the 70s, then a few years at Golden Hall at the Community Concourse before moving to what has become its permanent home at the San Diego Convention Center.
But having reached capacity inside the convention center a few years ago, the question again this year is the question asked every year now. How much longer will Comic Con be in San Diego?
The San Diego Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which says it means an annual economic impact of $162.8 million dollars, hopes it stays.
We may know soon. Because it could come down to the fate of the measure expected to be on the ballot this November that would raise hotel taxes to pay for an expanded convention center, which is what Comic Con organizers want.
And that goes for everyone who doesn’t want there to ever be a final chapter to Comic Con in San Diego.
(Photo credit 10News)