Lots of folks seem to be suggesting (or even predicting) that the Comic-Con International should/will move out of San Diego in the next few years. I don't think it should…and barring some lunkheaded moves by the convention center operators and city, I don't think it will, if only for lack of better alternatives. If the con's going to stay anywhere near Hollywood, which is one of its main appeals, the only options are Los Angeles, Anaheim and Las Vegas. No successful conventions of this kind have ever been staged in any of those locales and I can't see any of them as being preferable.
The Los Angeles Convention Center is a dreadful, sprawling place with nightmarish traffic nearby. There's already a huge sports arena and a separate concert hall within three blocks and a huge shopping center is soon to break ground. Even now, there's nowhere near enough parking. During any sort of major con, the center's parking structures fill to overflowing, and the commercial lots charge a fortune. (Remind me to tell you a story about that.) That would matter a lot because there are only a few hotels within walking distance of the convention center so outta-towners would be scattered all over L.A. — and we all know how wonderful mass transit is in this city.
Anaheim? Go take a look at what the hotels are able to charge now and how few rooms they have available. In San Diego, we aren't competing with families going to Disneyland…and the traffic/parking situation isn't much better than it is in L.A. It's been a while since I've been to Anaheim's convention center but the last time I was there, it looked like a dandy place to store manure for the rest of the country. In any case, it's not much bigger than what we have now in San Diego.
Which leaves Las Vegas. On July 24, the opening day of this year's Comic-Con International, it was 70° in San Diego. In Vegas, it was 107°. That's about the norm and it may be reason enough to scratch Sin City from consideration.
The convention centers in Vegas (there are several) are bigger but hotel rooms would be just as expensive and hard to come by. The Comic-Con in San Diego currently attracts about 125,000 people per year. Since the idea of moving it to Vegas would be to allow for more, figure (conservatively) it might bring in 150,000. That would make it about the same size as the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Anyone who's ever tried to book a room during CES can tell you that it's very hard to secure lodging — the big gamblers, after all, take precedence — and that you must usually pay five or more times the usual going prices for rooms.
I also think Vegas has the wrong vibe for the Comic-Con. It's not a kid-friendly town and there are too many other things to spend your time/bucks on. If I were a dealer, I wouldn't want the slot machines and Cirque du Soleil competing with me for the attendees' money. Everything about Vegas is configured to get you to the slots and to drain your wallet within the confines of your hotel.
One of the reasons the con works so well in San Diego is that we take over the city. There are other things to do, of course — plenty of them. But the Comic-Con dominates everything and therefore has great clout with the hotels and convention facilities. That wouldn't happen in L.A., Anaheim or Vegas. We'd just be another convention to them, nowhere near as important as we are to San Diego.
So I think Comic-Con oughta stay put. I'm told that the lodging situation will get better over the next few years as several new hotels open and several of the existing ones make more of their rooms available at convention rates. Capping attendance as the Comic-Con has done may inconvenience some…but it's not like the con really needs more attendees. One thing I don't think some people get is that moving to a larger venue probably wouldn't mean uncluttered aisles and plenty of cheap, available hotel rooms. To support a bigger hall would necessitate more people, more dealers, etc. Moving might just lead to more of the same kind of density. For some, the suggestion of moving the con comes down to, "It's too big! Let's move it somewhere it can get bigger!"
Also, relocating a major convention like this is not as simple as you choosing to stay at a Holiday Inn next month instead of a Motel 6. There's complicated math involved in these deals, and it involves things like what other conventions might want the facilities at the same time, how many hotel rooms the attendees might occupy, how much additional equipment must be brought in, etc. A few years ago, a member of the S.D. convention committee told me that if the con ever had to move to L.A., it might be necessary to double the price of admission and dealer tables there. Why? Because the L.A. Convention Center was just plain more expensive and because (he presumed) a much higher percentage of attendees would be commuting to the con from home and therefore not renting rooms at hotels that served the convention center. In most cities, the financial end of bringing in a convention is inextricably intertwined with the commerce of local merchants. It's a maze of subsidies and guarantees and how much money convention-goers spend locally…and they've managed to make it all work in San Diego. You can't just say, "Oh, let's do it in Vegas next year" and expect to get comparable terms.
All that said, it doesn't bother me that there are these rumors of the con moving. The folks who run it need at least a little leverage in order to negotiate the best terms possible with the S.D. Convention Bureau or whoever they make their deals with. The city has promised an expansion of the convention center and, I'm sure, many other things…and the option of going elsewhere may be necessary to make some of those plans happen, or at least happen soon. I just hope they never have to make good on their threats because I really think San Diego is the place for this one, now and forever.
(P.S. For another argument on the topic, check out this piece but don't believe everything you read. The author touts the Star Trek Experience at the Vegas Hilton and the city monorail as a reason to go to that town. The Star Trek Experience closes September 1…and the monorail, which is losing money like a tourist who splits tens at Blackjack, may not be around for very long, either. They also say "The best part about the LVCC [Las Vegas Convention Center] is it is connected to the Hilton hotel, that alone can accommodate 100,000 people." Uh, the Vegas Hilton has 3,175 rooms, only a percentage of which are available to any convention. I also don't think there's much chance of arranging free hotel shuttles to and from the airport in Los Angeles. At least, that doesn't happen with larger conventions in this city. But many of the other points made strike me as valid.)