With the 4th of July holiday over, SDCC preparations were in fully swing on Sunday. Half of the San Diego Convention Center was adorned with the iconic blue, yellow, black and white banners signaling the return of San Diego Comic Con.
Here is a look at the progress so far:
Thanks to my sister for helping with these photos!
They’re here! SDCC banners are flying high this morning, and it’s all Ant Man!
Here’s your first look!
(Better pictures coming soon…overcast day with me balancing on a median…)
In yesterday’s SDCC post I mentioned the Marriott Marquis’ expansion, set to debut in June 2016.
You can read more about it here.
If you’re attending SDCC this year you’ll see the construction zone, which will no doubt impact traffic, as the site is butted up against the sidewalk.
With the amount of conference and meeting space being added, it’s natural to assume that there will be implications for SDCC. Currently the Marriott hosts gaming central, featuring RPGs and LARPs, along with the Con Suite.
Will this expansion aid SDCC by providing more space?
Only time will tell.
In case you haven’t noticed, lately I’ve been making a daily trek to the Gaslamp Quarter and Convention Center to keep an eye on SDCC preparations. It’s early, of course, but I figure why not do it when I’m so close to the action?
Here’s what I saw today. (The Cisco convention is still going, and the weather is muggy and warm with lots of muggy humidity)
No line yet at Hall H!
Construction underway at the Marriott Marquis. The renderings look amazing and this will provide a ton of new space for SDCC in 2016.
Sky today…
Sky yesterday…
Keep watching for more SDCC prep sneak peeks!
I took a quick jaunt down to the Convention Center today. A month out from SDCC, and yet you can feel the excitement in the air in and around the Gaslamp Quarter.
It’s early Saturday morning and I’m “in” the Epic Online Registration room trying to help family register for badges.
The little blue circle is spinning, which means we are in a holding pattern until 9am.
It’s a stressful process knowing that there is a chance registration won’t happen.
To pass the time, SDCC posts humorous notes designed to take the edge off of the stress.
On another note, when I think of how many people worldwide are in this virtual waiting room trying to buy tickets, and how many people will descend upon San Diego for this event, it makes me realize how important this event is for our local economy.
We have to expand the Convention Center. We have to keep SDCC so fans can come to San Diego to enjoy this great city.
I buy my books at Bookstar, which is a Barnes and Noble in a snazzy locale: the old Loma Theater.
The Loma Theater is an icon in Point Loma. It used to be a single movie screen-theater. I saw E.T. The Extraterrestrial there in 1982 when I was 2 years old. The damn seat folded up on me and my mom couldn’t stop laughing. I don’t know what was the more traumatic: the seat incident or the movie itself.
In the late 1980s the theater closed up and became a book store in the 90s. The movie screen is still in place, along with the ornate painting on the ceiling that was so common in theaters of the era.
One day I will research the building, because the historian in me is dying to do some historical research, especially on the early days of such an iconic theater.
I am listening to Sir Paul McCartney playing live here in San Diego. He sold out Petco Park. There are not many artists who can do that these days.
What’s fascinating is the different kinds of people who lined up to get in. Young and old, rich and not so rich, kids with their parents and grandparents, people speaking every language out there. Paul McCartney brings us all together.
His music has a universal appeal. It will never get old. It will continue to be covered by new artists (“Yesterday” is the most covered song ever) and with each new iteration his music and the music of the Beatles will breathe new life into new generations of fans.
This has been a huge event for San Diego. Sir Paul hasn’t been here since 1974 with Wings (my mom and dad were there). The local radio station has been playing McCartney and Beatles music all day in preparation for the big event, rebranding for the day to PaulFM.
Welcome back to San Diego, Sir Paul. Please come back again soon. And thank you for sharing your gift with us.
This week the outlook for San Diego Comic Con staying in San Diego past 2016 became a bit murky. The plan was to use a hotel tax to help pay for the Convention Center expansion. But that measure was struck down in the appeals courts, and the City Council has no plan to appeal it. That means that the expansion’s future is up in the air, and without the expansion, San Diego Comic Con’s ability to stay in San Diego may be in jeopardy.
Here in San Diego, there are proposals all over the place for new stadiums for the Chargers, tearing down the iconic San Diego Sports Arena (if you saw the movie Almost Famous, then you know about he Sports Arena; not only that, but that’s where my parents saw Elvis and the Rolling Stones back in the day), and reconfiguring Balboa Park ahead of the 2015 centennial celebration. The thing most people don’t know about San Diego is that after a tumultuous decade or two of pension crises and irresponsible political doings by politicians with strange agendas, getting major plans together is harder than it should be.
That said, the expansion of the Convention Center makes a lot more sense than building a stadium that is used for a few events each year as opposed to a larger convention center that brings millions of dollars to the city on a regular basis.
It’s also important to note SDCC’s origins in San Diego. If Los Angeles wants a major con, then make one. (As long as it isn’t called “comic con” you’re ok…right, Salt Lake City??) Comic Con should stay in San Diego because it was born here. It wasn’t until the movie studios came down from LA that the lines got longer and panels filled up to the brim. Frankly, I think that there is enough interest and enough capacity to have a major con in San Diego, LA, and Las Vegas.
Would that be a bad thing? I say no, not at all.
Check out the article from Entertainment Weekly about SDCC:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/08/29/comic-con-san-diego/
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