Maureen Cavanaugh of San Diego’s KPBS recently interviewed David Glanzer, the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Comic-Con International. In her interview, Glanzer talks about the future of Comic-Con, including efforts to extend their current contract in San Diego and the future of Comic-Con after that. See our notes on the interview after the jump.
- – CCI is currently negotiating a three-year extension to their contract with San Diego that will keep the convention there until 2015.
– The recent land deal didn’t impact their decision on the extension, since the new space wouldn’t be available until at least 2015, but it may impact the group’s decision to stay there longer. However, if the deal didn’t go through, it might have made a difference.
– One of the options to deal with the growing attendance is to expand more events outside of the convention center to other nearby hotels and the like.
– Last year, Comic Con San Diego had 126,000 attendees, and this year most passes are already sold out. There is a waitlist of 400 exhibitors.
– Growing attendance and more locations costs money, so they are looking to increase sponsorship to help offset costs.
– CCI has a 13 member Board of Directors who decide things like the potential move.
– A decision on
– Las Vegas is not in the running, as they haven’t made any efforts. It’s pretty much just between Anaheim, Los Angeles, and of course San Diego.
– The availability of volunteers factors into the decision. Comic-Con 2009 had 3,000 volunteers, and it may be hard to replicate elsewhere, since the fanbase in San Diego is so dedicated.
– The actual influence of Hollywood on Comic-Con is overblown. The presence of films and TV is the same as it’s been before, it just gets more attention from mainstream media, and they have more money to promote their presence.
So, it looks like San Diego is safe at least for now. Let us know what you think about Glanzer’s comments. You can read and listen to the full interview at KPBS.
Update: There seems to be some confusion as to what Glanzer meant by “I expect within the next 30 days we should have a decision”. A representative for the San Diego Convention Center informed me that the 30 day mark was in regards to the negotiations about the contract extension, and not the overall fate of San Diego as the long term home for Comic-Con. They want to make it clear that the contract extension is by no means a done deal, and they will make an announcement when/if it is finalized.