It's something like 255 days until the 2023 Comic-Con convenes in San Diego. I expect to be there…but then, I expected to be there in 2020 and none of us were. I have a 2:30 PM Zoom conference today and that's about as far ahead as I feel plans can be firm in the world in which I live.
If you weren't able to score the badges you wanted this past weekend, please remember — first and foremost — that I am not the Complaint Department for the convention nor do I really have anything to do with its operations. I just go, do my silly little panels and go home.
There is no way to measure this but I suspect the number of people who fall into the category of "Want to Attend Comic-Con" is far greater than most of us imagine. If miraculously, the size of that convention center could be increased ten-fold and that many more people could attend, you'd still have folks grumbling about getting shut out.
This is anecdotal but just about every time I meet someone who's never been and they find out I'm a regular, they say something like, "Geez, I'd love to go sometime but I hear it's impossible to get in." The online lottery to try for badges may feel like it pits you against an overwhelming number of badge-seekers but you're not even competing with hundreds of thousands who aren't even trying.
Invariably after it sells out each time, the question gets asked if the con can move somewhere else so as to accommodate more people. I have long insisted that the answer to that is no. First off, there aren't that many larger convention centers in this country. Secondly, Comic-Con isn't just that one convention center. It's all the hotels and other facilities and the cooperation of darn near the entire city of San Diego. You're never going to get that from Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
And speaking of Las Vegas, they're looking at its biggest-ever event next year. I stole this text off a website…
The greatest racing spectacle on the planet and the sports and entertainment capital of the world collide as Formula 1 will light up the Las Vegas Strip on November 16-18, 2023, for an unforgettable race cutting right through the neon heart of the city. The Las Vegas Grand Prix's 3.8-mile track will weave past world-famous landmarks, casinos and hotels as drivers push their luck to breaking points at speeds of up to 212 mph.
Ticket prices for Formula 1 fans run from $500 to $10,000. That's if you buy a year in advance. You can imagine what tickets will cost next October. The hotel room at Caesars Palace that's usually $150 a night will be $1500 and up during the Formula 1 week…and by "up," I mean some of them are going for more than $10,000 a night. The casinos are orgasmic when they think about how much someone who'll pay that kind of money to see people drive fast will then lose at the crap tables while in town.
That's kind of what's required to take over Las Vegas the way Comic-Con takes over San Diego.
And besides, it isn't 120° in July in San Diego and the folks who run Comic-Con are experts at how to run that convention there and they've established all the necessary relationships with the hotels and the police and the transit people and everyone. So discard any dreams you have about Comic-Con moving somewhere large enough where you can easily get badges. Ain't gonna happen.
The unofficial attendance stat for the Comic-Con last July was "130,000+" and I don't think anyone knows how much that "+" denotes. That's been the easy-to-calculate statistic for the past few cons because that's capacity. I don't believe, by the way, it includes the immeasurable people who go to San Diego those days without badges and just hang out and enjoy the street fair and various off-site events and exhibits.
One evening a few conventions ago, I was in the Ralphs Market at 1st Avenue and G Street near the convention center. I had neglected to take off my badge and maybe that's why a nice lady — kind of a motherly type — came up to me and asked, "Are you going back to the convention tomorrow and if not, could I have your badge?"
I did not say to her, "Yes, but if you wear it to the con tomorrow, you have to go host eleven panels." Instead, I told her why she couldn't have my badge and she said, "I'm sorry but I've been here five or six years now and I've never gotten to see the inside of that convention."
I said, "You've been in the Ralphs Market for five or six years now?" She laughed and said, "No, every year I bring my sons here while the con is on. We can never get badges. I'm not even sure we could afford them. But there are lots of things to see and do around the convention center and my sons just love being here and oh, they get so much free stuff!"
She told me they live in San Ysidro so it's not a big commute. They come up on the trolley and go home the same way at night. Round-trip is around five bucks so it's actually cheap entertainment. Her sons are now old enough to come on their own but she still accompanies them. She said she so enjoys being around the convention with all the happy people out there, many in costume.
I'm not suggesting that anyone who can't get badges for the con just go there and hang around. The streets are crowded enough. I'm just reminding you that Comic-Con is difficult to get into because it's so popular, not because anyone's plotting to keep you out. That's just the nature of the beast. WonderCon Anaheim, which takes place next on March 24-26 is also pretty wonderful in many of the same ways. And it's a lot easier to get into.