Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment

Chargers, Comic-Con And Conspiracies In San Diego

Published Wed, 31 Aug 2016 12:00:06 -0500

Last updated Thu, 01 Sep 2016 04:50:25 -0500

Given their impact on pop culture, any action taken by Comic-Con International, the non-profit body behind San Diego Comic-Con becomes of major interest and font for speculation. Even when it's buying a few nearby buildings in downtown San Diego.

Recently the San Diego Union Tribune ran an article stating how any approval of the new stadium and more specifically, an annex to the convention centre, for the San Diego Chargers could threaten the future of San Diego Comic-Con in the city.

Comic-Con has been very clear — it does not support an annex several blocks away from the Convention Center — but that is what Mr. Spanos is asking voters to approve this November. He attached the annex to his stadium plan to try and build support for the stadium, but the annex does not give Comic-Con and other large conventions what they want: an on-site expansion of the existing Convention Center.

"We want to set the record straight that we do not support those other, noncontiguous plans even if proponents of those plans try to convince the public otherwise," Comic-Con said in July. Other major conventions that also bring jobs and revenue to San Diego share this view.

Yesterday the paper also ran a seemingly unconnected story about Comic-Con buying three buildings in Barrio Logan through a subsidiary company.

"It is part of a potential future business operation that is not appropriate for disclosure at this time," Comic-Con said in a statement. "Also, there are tenants currently occupying the building and we prefer they not be bothered."

Interestingly, it's about three blocks or less from the proposed downtown Chargers stadium.

Local observers of a conspiratorial note have suggested that Comic-Con International buying land that the Chargers might need for their stadium development might be a blocking move, or a negotiating strategy…

However, while the property is near the proposed new construction, it isn't actually in the footprint of the construction area. And it looks like the property was purchased before the Chargers proposed a downtown stadium initiative.