San Diego Comic-Con is being wooed by the Anaheim Convention Center, which would provide another half million square feet of exhibit space and many more hotel rooms, for its next contract when its current one with San Diego is up in 2012, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.  San Diego, meanwhile, is pitching hard to keep Comic-Con by trying to find additional off-site space for Comic-Con events and expanding the number of hotel rooms sold at lower fixed rates through the convention bureau, according to the report.

 

A total of 300,000 square feet of meeting space is being offered by the three waterfront hotels, the Manchester Hyatt, the San Diego Marriott, and the San Diego Bayfront, free of charge for the next contract period of 2013 to 2015.  The convention bureau is also proposing to double the number of rooms it offers convention-goers from 7,000 to 14,000.  The number has already been expanded greatly for 2010.

 

Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer was focused on the task force investigating an expansion of the San Diego Convention Center when we spoke to him after the 2009 show (see “Another Great San Diego Comic-Con”).  The expansion was recommended by the task force, but no funding has been approved to date. 

 

The Comic-Con board will make a decision within the next month, according to the Union Tribune.   

 

Comic-Con would be the largest show at the Anaheim Convention Center.