Comic-Con used to mail advance pro-reg badges. They stopped this a few years ago. There have been years since that they've literally been printing the badges on the spot as you show them your registration confirmation (which, to be blunt, is insane given the literally thousands of folk getting pro badges). Last year, according to what I heard later, they had a new contractor doing it and it reached ridiculous levels of slowness; I got in line around 4 and by 6 had moved only a few tens of feet and had a couple of hundred to go. I was fortunate a friend happened by who had an extra badge, which I used for Preview Night, coming back right near the close to get my own badge. If the same thing had happened at a Worldcon, people would still be talking about it decades later (i.e. it made the lines at ConFrancisco look reasonable).
As far as I know, there was no cap on Comic-Con attendees last year. At this point, it's more a problem of hotel space, since San Diego's under-hotelled, particularly in the immediate neighborhood, for the size of the convention center. Moving it to Chicago isn't an option; the majority of attendees are SoCal based, so you'd have to get a whole new mass audience. Not to mention losing the ability of Hollywood types to easily pop in for a promo panel, which is another reason for their large attendance. There apparently has been consideration of moving to Anaheim (or at least using said consideration when negotiating with the SD convention center), but that's as far as I can see them moving it. Remember, the concom is San Diego locals.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-05-14 08:31 am (UTC)As far as I know, there was no cap on Comic-Con attendees last year. At this point, it's more a problem of hotel space, since San Diego's under-hotelled, particularly in the immediate neighborhood, for the size of the convention center. Moving it to Chicago isn't an option; the majority of attendees are SoCal based, so you'd have to get a whole new mass audience. Not to mention losing the ability of Hollywood types to easily pop in for a promo panel, which is another reason for their large attendance. There apparently has been consideration of moving to Anaheim (or at least using said consideration when negotiating with the SD convention center), but that's as far as I can see them moving it. Remember, the concom is San Diego locals.