WonderCon, which opens this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend due to the Anaheim Convention Center expansion project, will be returning to Anaheim in 2017. The show, managed by the people who run the widely successful ComicCon International show in San Diego, relocated to Anaheim in 2012 and stayed because the crowds came out in force.
According to ComicBookResources, Los Angeles is playing a long game for a relocation of ComicCon from San Diego in 2019 and this year’s WonderCon is a trial run:
WonderCon’s time in downtown Los Angeles looks like it’ll be short-lived. While this year’s installment of the annual comics convention is set to take place in LA this Friday through Sunday, a new report from L.A. Biz reports that the show will once again head 30 miles south next year, with WonderCon 2017 returning to the Anaheim Convention Center. CBR has confirmed the report with Comic-Con International, the parent company of WonderCon.
According to the report, Los Angeles Convention Center General Manager Brad Gessner stated that the LA facility did not have the dates available that Comic-Con International, the parent company of WonderCon, was looking to book for the show. WonderCon moved from its original Bay Area home in 2012, with the previous four installments of the show taking place in Anaheim.
I still believe Anaheim could compete for the big ComicCon show itself but still has to work out more amenities around the convention center for post-show parties and receptions. But this is good news for the city of Anaheim’s economy as WonderCon is a major annual convention.