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The 50th annual Comic-Con is here and the event is expected to bring an estimated 135,000 attendees into the San Diego Convention Center. This makes Comic-Con the San Diego Convention Center's largest annual attended event.
This year's Comic-Con will run from Thursday, July 18 through Sunday, July 21, with preview night being held on Wednesday, July 17.
Comic-Con attracts attendees from over 80 countries and more than 2,500 media personnel from over 30 countries, putting San Diego at the center of an international spotlight. Comic-Con guests are expected to generate an estimated $149 million in regional impact to San Diego, with a direct attendee spend of $88 million.
With all those attendees coming from all around the world to the San Diego Convention Center, the mission of welcoming every single one of our guests requires a super hero team of our own to build the small city that becomes Comic-Con.
- In 2018, it took our San Diego Convention Center staff and the staff from Centerplate over 25,609 hours from to get the job done.
- In addition, it took about 30,000 hours of skilled labor to set up the exhibit hall.
Comic-Con has also become famous for the super-sized appetites. Our food and beverage partners with Centerplate answer the call to come in and save the day to feed our guests.
- Last year, 17,551 hot dogs were sold. If we were to line up each hot dog on the ground, the length of them would be four times longer than the 1,971-foot Ocean Beach Pier, the longest beach pier in Southern California!
- Over 50,000 drinks were sold. That's more than the number of hotels rooms located in the entire City of San Diego.
The Convention Center team also produces one-of-a-kind custom chocolate bars each year. Here are some fun facts about the 3,800 bars that will be sold:
- The combined weight of the 3,800 bars is more than the combined weight of 2,601 MLB baseballs.
- It took more than 60 hours for the chefs at Centerplate to make all of the Comic-Con exclusive chocolate bars.
The San Diego Convention Center's heroics in sustainability has helped minimize environmental waste in our community.
- We recycled 50 tons of cardboard, over 3.5 tons of compost, 9 tons of wood and over 20 tons of mixed recycling which includes plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass last year.
- The 50 tons of cardboard alone is more than the combined amount of weight of six fully grown male African bush elephants, just like the ones you can find at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
- The 20 tons of mixed recycling is over three times the weight of the Gaslamp Quarter archway.
Here's another important fact: There will be temporary road restrictions in place around the San Diego Convention Center.
In order to maximize safety and security during Comic-Con 2019, access to Harbor Drive in front of the San Diego Convention Center will be temporarily restricted to ALL traffic including cars, bicycles, scooters, skateboards and shared mobility devices (dockless bicycles and scooters) during certain days and times. So be sure to know your ABC's.
