SAN DIEGO — San Diego Comic-Con International will come to a close Sunday, capping off several days of comics, shows, movies, games, activities and everything else pop culture.
Comic-Con 2024 was expected to attract more than 135,000 attendees over its four-day run, generating a regional impact of more than $160 million, which includes both direct and indirect spending by visitors.
In 2022, Comic-Con welcomed more than 135,000 attendees and generated $3 million in hotel and sales tax revenue for San Diego, according to city documents.
Comic-Con spokesperson David Glazner said this year more people without badges attended activities outside of the convention.
"There was so much activity this year, we saw a lot more people in the Gaslamp area, it seemed like people came out in force this year,” said Glazner.
For a lot of people attending there was one big question: Where will Comic-Con's home be in 2027?
“We’d love to stay in San Diego, but it’s really important that this event is as affordable to the guests as we can possibly make it,” said Glazner.
Comic-Con actually works with hotels in the area to secure affordable room blocks for attendees.
“The issue we come up with is that there are some mid-range or smaller hotels that either don’t want to take part in the room block program anymore or reduce their room block and charge more for rooms and our attendees can’t afford that,” said Glazner.
There's a fear that if people can't afford to come, they'll just go to another convention.
“We don’t have the rooms that we need for 25 and 26, but we signed in good faith that we’ll get those so we’re working on 27 and beyond,” said Glazner.
Even if they can get the bare minimum of room blocks the convention could sign for another three years with San Diego.
"They are our fans, they have been our most loyal people over these 55 years.” said Glazner
With attendees' best interest at heart, they are hoping surrounding hotels work with them to make this weekend as affordable as possible.
“We do want to stay in San Diego. We were born here,” said Glazner.
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