San Diego's homegrown Comic-Con convention has grown from a meet-up of comic-book-obsessed nerds-in-costume to a must-stop pop culture phenomenon with influence that reaches the top echelons of franchise-crazed Hollywood. As such, there are rumblings that the summer gathering could leave S.D. in 2012 when its contract with the convention center there is up and possibly come to Los Angeles.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Los Angeles, Las Vegas and, especially, Anaheim have been competing to wrest the event from S.D. The paper notes that moving to Anaheim could be attractive because its closer to those Hollywood executives who have found it to be an increasingly important content well in recent years.

In response to the competition, San Diego's Convention Center Corp., the city of S.D., and its Unified Port District have mounted a campaign to get the convention to commit to staying there through 2015.

They're dangling a deal that includes 300,000 square feet of meeting space in the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego Marriott and Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotels, as well as a proposed doubling of the number of area hotel rooms dedicated to attendees.

Comic-Con states that its fans spend $60 million on lodging, food and transportation in San Diego each year.

(Spotted at LAist).

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