In the last week, I've received a number of e-mails asking if I have any inside info on a rumor that the Comic-Con International is soon to relocate from its native San Diego. Yes, I have inside info. It ain't true.
It is conceivable that the day might come when some other town will be a better fit for the nation's largest gathering of people like you and me. It is also within the realm of human possibility that the civic leaders of San Diego — the ones who run the convention center and arrange deals for big assemblages to assemble therein — will dictate unacceptable terms. That's why the Comic-Con organizers need to always keep their options open and to explore alternatives.
But frankly, I can't think of another town that would work for the event. There's a huge Los Angeles convention center and another in Anaheim but both are vast, impersonal spaces in which you'd never find your way to, say, my panels. Either would make for a very different kind of convention. Housing would be harder to secure and farther from the con, and I suspect most Southern Californians would commute each day rather than pay for a room. That would, in turn, have a major impact on the convention itself. One of the things that makes a convention of that size economically feasible is that so many people spend so much money at local hotels and restaurants as a direct result of the con. (If they tried to relocate to Anaheim and kept the con in July or August, we'd be fighting for hotel space and intermingling with folks attending Disneyland during its peak season.)
The convention is well-run and if it was forced to move, I'm sure they'd figure something out. But it may never come to that and it certainly won't in the foreseeable future. So ignore the rumors. The con is staying in the 619 area code for now. Even if that means some of us have to park in 714.