The San Diego Convention Center, which is the home for the International Comic Con, is planning a "major expansion."

The officials say buying a one-year option on 16 acres of Port of San Diego land gives them time to figure out another major question: How will they pay for an expansion?

The convention center's board plans to increase the facility's size by up to 300,000 square feet of exhibit space by 2014.

Ultimately, the board would like to double the current 525,000 square feet, but it's uncertain if there's enough room on the land that they would use.

Convention officials will take a year to work out the details: how to finance an expansion, what it will look like and how it will fit. Funding would probably come from borrowing against convention center revenues, Wallace said, but they are far from a complete proposal.

“We have purchased a year to figure this out,” Kendrick said.

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