Little more than a week ago San Diego Comic-Con organizers were “hopeful” the annual convention could still be held this July. But with the COVID-19 outbreak destroying the fall convention season, and quickly targeting summer, that appears to no longer be the case. According to those same organizers and The San Diego Union-Tribune, an announcement about Comic-Con’s future is expected soon, and cancellation seems imminent.
There are multiple problems with holding an event such as Comic-Con right now, but let’s start with the obvious one. It just isn’t safe for more than 135,000 people to be all crammed in one place together, not right now.
“They are evaluating any financial liability they might have with a cancellation, and once they determine that, they’ll make a decision,” Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi said. “Based on our knowledge of the event, it will be very difficult for them to have that event in July. With other events you could do things to keep people separate, but Comic-Con is a whole different animal, it’s a massive sea of people.” At the moment they are still evaluating the situation but sent out an email to more than 50 hotels about cancelation fees. Comic-Con wanted assurances that “any cancellation fees or penalties for this year’s event be waived as we work through this challenging process. Comic-Con continues to be a loyal partner and important economic generator for the City of San Diego and has been for over 50 years.”
Comic-Con said on Thursday that an announcement will happen soon. They could try to do what some recent film festivals and conventions have done, which is attempt an online version.
“We understand that many stakeholders rely upon our conventions as a major portion of their yearly income and livelihood, but we are truly in uncharted territory,” said spokesman David Glanzer. “We do not want to disappoint the people who have saved, planned, and are looking forward to the show this summer, but the primary concern, what is chief among all our concerns, is the health and safety of not only our attendees but the public as well.”
Here’s the thing: many of those people who were saving, planning, and looking forward to Comic-Con now are without jobs. And even if they do have work, it’s doubtful they’re going to be thinking of an expensive trip so they can watch some movie trailers or buy a $500 exclusive toy. Comic-Con is a frivolous expenditure under the best of circumstances.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Comic-Con is the kind of place where one expects to come home with some sort of cold or flu. Having been there many times, there are just too many people for it to be sanitary and illness rips through the Convention Center. It also turns out that the building is being used to house hundreds of San Diego’s homeless, who are also being affected by COVID-19 and have nowhere else to go.
There just doesn’t appear to be a positive way out of this for Comic-Con. The studios don’t have any films they’d be willing to bring and certainly no celebrities are going to risk exposure. Moving an event of this size until later in the year also seems like a mistake, and a gigantic undertaking. I continue to think 2020 will go down as a lost year, and it may be that Sundance was the first and last major festival/convention to take place until 2021.
