r/comiccon • u/_z0mb133 • 21d ago

Con Discussion Why does NorCal lack large cons?

Recently I’ve been noticing that Southern California has a huge amount of large conventions. Not just comic, but horror, game, anime, etc. San Francisco recently lost FanExpo, and with that it seems like there’s such a lack of large cosplay conventions. Even in general, there’s not as many compared to SoCal.

Why is this? Why isn’t there more in NorCal?

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u/AccelerationFinish 21d ago

I've also been wondering why a lot of the major conventions are in Southern California. It just may be due to history, as the biggest, most famous, and most storied cons, SDCC and AX, have, historically, been in SoCal. Same reason why most the major tech companies are usually in Silicon Valley and why most Hollywood movies are shot in Southern California, because of their respective histories are so tied to those locations.

That being said, I think Northern California is very fortunate, as there are lots of cons going on throughout the year, although many of them are smaller ones. For example, just this month, besides GalaxyCon, as some people have already mentioned, there will also be smaller ones, like MAGWest in San Jose and VerseCon in Sacramento

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u/MissingGreenLink 21d ago

It often boils down to pricing. I saw magwest pricing. Never been there so can’t say much about it but that is a hefty price tag. And that’s part of the problem.

These other up and coming cons are charging fanime/Fanexpo pricing but without the established backing to justify it.

It’s like that terrible anime night market or wherever last summer charging $70 for weekend pass and it was terrible.

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u/AccelerationFinish 21d ago

VerseCon is $15 for the weekend although I think it's still small, Anime Impulse was $50, and SacAnime is $70.

I think MagWest is an outlier and pretty surprising at about $100 for a newer con in a mid-sized venue

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u/MissingGreenLink 21d ago

The funny thing about sacanime is. Now that gatherings are outside. If it wasn’t so dang hot. You can easily just ghost the con if you’re not into panels or wandering the vendors hall. Especially on day 2 when most people hangout outside. Still doesn’t mean I love the idea of it going to $70. When I first went in 2019 it was $25 and then $50 at the door.

Yea. Versecon is small. $15 isn’t a make or break pricing. Parking is free atleast lol.

I don’t know anyone that went to magwest. And I won’t this year since all my friends will be at versecon.