San Diego Chargers Suggest A Comic Con Museum

The NFL’s San Diego Chargers today issued a statement expressing their desire to reinvigorate downtown San Diego, with one of the proposals being to build a permanent, sustainable home for both Comic Con International, and a Comic Con Museum.

There’s only one catch: Comic-Con International isn’t buying what the Chargers are selling.

“At the same time, we have considered the potential benefits to both the greater San Diego region and the Chargers of a multi-use stadium/convention center facility downtown,” says the Chargers’ statement in part. “The multi-use facility, when combined with PetCo Park, the existing Convention Center, the Gaslamp Quarter, and a revitalized East Village, would create an unparalleled entertainment and sports district that will host Super Bowls and will ideally be a permanent home for Comic-Con and a Comic-Con museum. All of our research demonstrates that voters are more likely to approve a multi-use facility that would generate economic activity on hundreds of days per year, including by attracting major sporting and convention events that San Diego cannot now host. The downtown multi-use facility would also free up the existing Mission Valley site for potential use by educational institutions such as San Diego State and UCSD, as well as for a large riverfront park.”

Of course, Comic Con has been talking for years about moving out of San Diego altogether, heading to someplace like Las Vegas or Los Angeles, where the infrastructure to support a larger convention is already in place.

“We have had no discussions with the Chargers and were surprised to be mentioned in their recent statement,” Comic Con said in a statement of their own. “We hope the public is aware, and we would like to reiterate our ongoing belief that a contiguous convention center expansion is the preferable solution to the limits on current convention center space. Comic-Con has doubts that a multi-use facility would serve the best interests of potential conventions hoping to exhibit in San Diego.”