What Happens In San Diego ...

Should Happen In Las Vegas

By Katherine Keller
March 1, 2007

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Conventions long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that comics geeks are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Convention Locations and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Attendees; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Conventioneering. The recent history of the present Comic-Con International Location is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Attendees. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

And now that I have set Jefferson to spinning in his grave, and hopefully provided you, candid world, with a chuckle, let us proceed to the submitting of these aforementioned facts.

According to Comic Con International's website 114,000 attendees, plus 9000 exhibitor staff (making a total of 123,000 people) attended 2006's Comic Con International: San Diego.

In her February 2006 article, Why you didn't get a hotel room in San Diego, Heidi MacDonald observed that while over 100,000 people attended 2005's Comic-Con International: San Diego, less than 7,000 hotel rooms were available through the convention's hotel website. (As an aside, MacDonald dug up not one, but two articles on how the San Diego Convention Center has outstripped the supply of hotel rooms.)

The situation for 2007 has not improved much. While the San Diego Convention Center Corporation (SDCCC) web site proudly boasts that there are over 10,000 hotel rooms within one mile of the convention center, page 10 of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau's 2007 San Diego Tourism Outlook reveals that only 269 hotel rooms were added in 2006, and that, "[s]ome projects expected to open in 2006 are now anticipated in 2007, when an estimated 2,300 rooms will be added, a 4.2% increase to the County's total inventory."

Just how many rooms are available in San Diego County? According to page 11 of the same report, the 2006 total is 51,882 (54,037 if counting Bed and Breakfasts, Spa Resorts, and Casino Resorts). Downtown, with its roughly 10,000 rooms, accounts for 27% of the county's total.

The last time the Las Vegas Metro Area (not Clark County) boasted fewer than 55,000 hotel rooms was 1982. (Source: 1982 Las Vegas Perspective pg. 46.) According to the most current numbers provided by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), there are 133,186 hotel/motel rooms in Metro Las Vegas. (If one counts the hotel rooms in Laughlin, Primm, and Mesquite, the total approaches 150,000.) Over 66,000 of those hotel rooms are on the Las Vegas Strip, and of those over 66,000 rooms, over 26,000 lie on Las Vegas Monorail stops.

Also, unlike downtown San Diego hotels (who pillage the pocketbook by typically charging over $10/day) hotels in Las Vegas rarely, if ever, charge for parking.

But Las Vegas has more advantages than free parking and the sheer wealth of places for people to rest their heads.

In addition to the aforementioned monorail, Las Vegas has a bus system, a very large fleet of taxis, and one of the world's premier airports.

Downtown San Diego may have about 10,000 rooms within one mile (as the crow flies) of the convention center, but the (paratransit friendly) Las Vegas Monorail puts more than double that in what amounts to a short walk to the nearest station. The rate for a one-way pass is less than a typical Comic-Con International: San Diego attendee spends on a one-way pedi-cab or taxi cab ride from an outlying hotel such as the Holiday Inn to the convention center.

In addition to the Monorail, the Citizens Area Transit system (aka "CAT Bus") has many buses and routes on the strip. Most important for convention purposes, is "The Deuce" which runs 24-7, has an offshoot (route #4) that directly serves the Las Vegas Convention Center, and provides convenient transportation to the hotels located not only on the strip, but also to "Downtown Vegas/The Freemont Street Experience" hotels (over 6000 rooms). Moreover, all buses owned and operated by CAT Bus are wheelchair friendly, and special paratransit buses (with door to door service) are available by appointment.

According to the FAQ at the Nevada State Taxi Cab Authority website, in 2006, Las Vegas cab drivers completed almost 26 million trips. Currently there are over 2500 vehicles in the Las Vegas Metro area taxi fleet — about 6000 drivers — and by law all taxis are required to have air conditioning. (I tried to find similar statistics or rules and regulations for San Diego, but the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System [which oversees taxicabs] is not so forthcoming with their data.)

While San Diego's Lindbergh Field is the world's second busiest single runway airport, at an average of 40,000 passengers a day, and with restrictions on flight arrival and departure times, McCarran International it is not.

Anybody trying to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday, or leave on Sunday or Monday, has seen how the United States' 30th busiest airport (and smallest, in terms of land area for a major commercial airport) strains to cope with the influx of passengers.

Mighty McCarran International (the US's 5th busiest and the world's 9th busiest airport) is built to cope with massive influxes of people. According to an entry dated 2/6/2007 on their news page, over 46 million passengers passed through the airport in 2006. Page 10 of the 3rd Quarter 2006 Las Vegas Marketing Bulletin shows that as of September, 2006, the average daily scheduled seat capacity for the airport was 77,805. Or to put it another way, McCarran plans for over half of CCI:SD's total attendance to come through the facility every day. And McCarran has more runways and no restrictions on when flights can take off or land. Finally, McCarran offers free wireless internet access in most areas of the airport.

The SDCCC is proud of the size and amenities of their award winning building (about 820,000 square feet of actual usable convention space and meeting rooms, not counting the 200,000 square feet of foyer space), but at over two million square feet of exhibition space, the Las Vegas Convention Center dwarfs the San Diego Convention Center.

Remember Saturday, July 22, 2006? The day when so many people were in the San Diego Convention Center or trying to get in to it that CCI, in conjunction with the Fire Marshal, closed both on-line and on-site registration?

With two million square feet of exhibition space, in a building that totals over 3.2 million square feet, in a city that has over 9.5 square million feet of convention space, that will not happen any time soon in Las Vegas.

All of this data that I've gathered here simply scratches the surface. Consider the fact that the 2007 San Diego Tourism Outlook shows a projection of about 27 million visitors for 2007 (8), while according to the LVCVA's 2005 Annual Brief, "Las Vegas visitation reached 38.6 million in 2005, and projections for 2006 are estimated at 39.1 million. The LVCVA's goal is to reach 43 million visitors in 2009. (1)" Or the fact that the number of restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip alone dwarfs the number of eateries in Downtown San Diego (and they don't all close by 10pm). Or that given the increasing Hollywood presence at CCI:SD, the MGM Grand (with its Cineplex) and the Palms (which hosts the Cinevegas film festival) make perfect venues for after hours TV and film studio related events.

The LVCVA is the 800 pound gorilla of the convention industry. The power of this organization, with its vast network of contacts with vendors, government agencies, and other convention facilities in the valley, plus the ability of its staff to make things happen, cannot be overlooked.

"But San Diego Con is always in San Diego! It's where the main people behind CCI live!" WonderCon and APE show that CCI knows how to throw a party outside of San Diego.

The time to start planning this transition is now, because as Dr. Patti Shock, the head of UNLV's William H. Harrah Hotel College reminded me, a move like this cannot happen overnight. The Las Vegas Convention Center is already booked for the next few years, and CCI probably has a multi-year contract with the SDCCC. But the fact of the matter is, CCI:SD, already the largest event of its kind in the US (and the 2nd largest in the world) is growing. San Diego cannot accommodate us now and certainly will not be able to accommodate us five years from now. Las Vegas, on the other hand, has plenty of rooms, the transit systems to cope with the influx, an enormous convention center, and is planning on having over 43 million visitors in 2010.

The very name of the convention in question, Comic-Con International: San Diego suggests that another city's name could very well follow that colon.

Based on these facts, name me one reason it should not be Las Vegas.

The author would like to thank the following people: Lateka Grays (UNLV Library), Sidney Lowe (UNLV Library), Dr. Patti Shock, Dr. Curtis Love, and especially Nancy Murphy and Tom Papageorge from the LVCVA, who both took time out of an incredibly busy week during what is one of the busiest months of their year to personally touch base with me and offer assistance.

Works consulted in addition to those cited/linked above:

Heidi MacDonald — Hoteloween: the day after and Okay just a little bit more on San Diego's hotel situation

Metropolitan Research Association of Southern Nevada — 1984 Las Vegas Perspective

San Diego Convention & Visitor's Bureau — San Diego County Visitor Industry Summary: Calendar Year — January-December 2006

Las Vegas Visitor and Convention Authority — Your gateway to planning a visit to, or a convention in, Las Vegas.