At the closing ceremony for Otakon Sunday, sponsors said that more than 34,000 people came to the three-day anime, manga, comics and gaming fan-fest – the latest growth spurt by an event which has become the East Coast’s biggest anime convention and the Baltimore Convention Center’s largest attendance draw.

But participants also learned that the rumors were true: Otakon is leaving Baltimore – where it has been held since 1999 – and moving to D.C. starting in 2017. The stated reason: the condition of the aging convention buildings and the possibility of disruptive renovation or expansion  work.

“The primary driver for this move is the state of the facilities in Baltimore and their uncertain future,” event sponsor Otakorp, Inc. said, in a press release yesterday.

“The Baltimore Convention Center has not aged gracefully and there are proposals to replace both the BCC and the Arena over the next five years.,” the release said.

In a subsequent online Q&A with Anime News Network, Otakorp president Andrew Earnhardt also noted that the event was becoming too large for the center’s available space: “If we want to continue to grow as an organization, the space was not here.”

The head of the Visit Baltimore city tourism organization, Tom Noonan, also stressed the square-footage issue, in an email to The Brew.

“The issue wasn’t quality, but space within the center to allow for future growth of the show,” Noonan said.

But lingering worries about the $900 million plan to expand the Convention Center and build a new Arena – a project once touted by City Hall and the State House, but apparently shelved for lack of funding – were clearly another major reason for their decision.

“Any upgrades would require at least a temporary move,” the press release said, “and would result in disruptive changes in our facilities regardless of the final outcome.” Other issues have been hinted at, including the design and lack of modernization of the facility, close-by hotels, mass transit and neighborhood atmosphere.

A Deal With a Catch

Funky, goofy Otakon has clearly endeared itself to Baltimore – and to its business community. Noonan estimates its latest economic impact on the city at $10.6 million. It draws attendees from across the region, sells out downtown hotels a year in advance and floods the Inner Harbor with green-skinned, pointy-eared, Lycra-clad fantasy characters of all kinds.

But now, with the otaku departing, the city’s mere mortals remain behind to debate what effect the loss might have on discussion about the Convention Center’s (and downtown’s) future.

The expansion plan cited by the Otakorp representatives was first proposed in 2010 by the Greater Baltimore Committee.

The following year, the idea gained traction as the result of an unusual offer by developer Willard Hackerman.

Hackerman promised to lead a private investor group that would foot the bill for a new $325 million, 18,500-seat downtown replacement for the aging First Mariner Arena, along with a $175 million hotel – so long as it came as part of a publicly-funded $400 million convention center expansion.

It was to be the second expansion for the Convention Center, which opened in 1979 and underwent a $151 million enlargement completed in April 1997.

The new plan’s boosters said still more space was needed to keep up with the competition, as other cities expanded their convention facilities.

The scheme had strong City Hall backing (and support from some business leaders and editorial writers) but talk about it faded amid controversy and funding issues.

Perhaps the last hurrah for the project came in March 2012, when the Maryland Stadium Authority released a consultants’ study (commissioned by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Gov. Martin O’Malley) that concluded the project could draw national and international convention business and “transform the city.”

If you Build it, Will They Come?

The project’s critics winced at the price-tag, noting the travails of the under-performing and financially-strapped city-owned Hilton Hotel.

Questions also arose from the fact that convention attendance nationally has been flat or declining; some suggested that cities have squeezed all the economic development value they can out of enlarged convention centers and that the strategy may have run its course.

Baltimore’s convention and trade show attendance numbers as recorded annually for a time by the Sage Policy Group showed an overall downward trend between 2005 (335,097) and 2010 (295,075).

The Convention Center and Live Baltimore record attendance differently, tallying it by fiscal year and including in their totals auto shows and other events more geared more to locals than out-of-town visitors. Thus, for fiscal 2010, for example, their number is 368,834. Yesterday, they released numbers that show total attendance dropped from 544,168 in 2005 to 488,469 in 2011 and then rose to 622,342 in 2012.

Whether the general drop-off is due to the economy, Baltimore’s need for expansion/overhaul or a national glut of convention space are questions at the heart of any debate over whether to launch into the nearly billion dollar arena/convention center project currently on the shelf. Otakon’s Earnhardt did discuss the D.C. convention center’s square-footage advantage in his interview.

“To give a scale, the [Baltimore Convention Center] is marketed at 1.3 million square feet. The D.C. convention center is marketed at 2.4 million square feet,” he said. “We’re moving to a million square foot-larger facility. We’re getting more room.”

But along with the facility’s size, the D.C. center also drew praise from Otakon leadership for its proximity to new hotels and an increasingly “vibrant neighborhood.”

“There’s apartment living, there’s part of the old neighborhood that’s still there, and there are new businesses that are moving into older buildings and keeping the older facade,” Earnhardt said.

Could relative lack of upkeep of the Baltimore center also be part of the problem?

The building’s leaky roof caused trouble at ComicCon two years ago, requiring exhibitors to scramble to protect their wares from falling water and call for plastic buckets to catch the drips. Earnhardt praised the Walter E. Washington center, citing its revisions and digital signage.

“They’ve kept up with the times, which for us is good – it means they are taking care of their facility,” he said. “It’s beautiful. It’s large. There are no dead-end hallways. . . You don’t have to worry about people sitting at the end of the hallway, because there is no end to the hallway. The hallways are much wider, it’s just a newer facility.”

Safety Concerns

Online, meanwhile, otaku are discussing the pros and cons of each city for “the con,” and some of them are talking about safety among other issues.

“Having more hotels located closer to the venue is a good thing. I don’t mind walking a couple blocks, but I really don’t care to go farther than that, especially at night,” wrote Sailor S, on an Anime News Network forum.

“There’s often groups of attendees around, but sometimes when you’re walking back at 1 or 2 in the morning after the late night panels have ended, you don’t wanna be out on the streets any longer than you need to.”