The San Diego Convention Center expansion plans – which have been in place for over six years – may have now reached what may be its final hurdle. The City Council have decided not to challenge a recent court ruling that drew a line under the financial plans proposed by the city’s hoteliers to raise the funds required for the build.

This means the £320+ million pound ($520 million dollar) project has now been effectively shut down as no other method currently stands to raise the funds for the expansion to move forward, leaving uncertainty in its wake about what plans will now take its place – these include an expanded football stadium/convention space, proposed as an alternative by the San Diego Chargers.

This will now place added pressure on Comic-Con International to leave the city in which it all began, back in 1972, and take the highly profitable San Diego Comic-Con to another location, such as Anaheim, Los Angeles or Las Vegas. The convention raised over £100 million (an estimated $180 million) in tourist revenue to the city of San Diego in 2014 and continued the yearly tradition of putting the city on the worldwide cultural map.

Now all of that is at risk as SDCC continues to swell beyond the burgeoning perimeters of the ageing Convention Center, a building which is in desperate need of maintenance, upkeep and increased capacity if it wishes to attract not only Comic-Con but other major conventions – especially those from the medical sector- to San Diego and compete with larger venues in other cities.

From a piece published by The San Diego U-T, yesterday:

“The City Council’s 7-0 vote Tuesday to not pursue an appeal raises questions about when, if ever, a larger center will be built, given the daunting challenge of finding a new way to pay for the $520 million project or an alternative.

Meeting in closed session, the council considered how to proceed in light of an appellate court ruling earlier this month that a hotel room surcharge approved two years ago by the city’s hotel owners was unconstitutional because it was not submitted to the electorate.

While the city has the option of putting the matter to a vote of the people, it would require a two-thirds majority, a difficult threshold to meet for any tax, even a levy on visitors.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer said Tuesday he remains committed to an expansion of the center, but is now open to other ideas that could combine a new football stadium with a convention hall.

“As I take a fresh look at expanding the convention center, I am open to all options,” Faulconer said in a prepared statement. “These include finding alternative financing for the current plan to expand directly next to the existing convention center as well as exploring a non-contiguous expansion at a different location that could include a new stadium for the Chargers. I continue to believe that any proposed Chargers stadium project should be brought before voters.”

This is in stark contrast to the positive tone put forward by the Convention Center Expansion team when the Coastal Commission backed the expansion proposal back in October of last year. There has been no official word yet from the Convention Center itself, reacting to the City Council’s decision. (We have put in a request for an interview and will keep you informed about progress on the expansion, if any can actually take place at this juncture.)

It has been noted that Comic-Con International may have already begun alternatives to hosting the Con in San Diego in a more ‘campus’ approach, something that has been introduced in previous years but implemented on a much larger scale in July 2014, with attractions tied in with Comic-Con taking place in multiple venues across the city.

Do you think Comic-Con can survive if it moved to another city? Is there another location that can allow the Con to maintain its own unique appeal if it left San Diego? Leave your thoughts and comments below.

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