SF in '02 Bid Folds

The Bay Area in 02 Worldcon bid has folded their San Francisco bid and is bidding only San Jose

[This item is late in appearing on PNN as I've been on holiday for the past week -- Ed.]

The San Francisco in 02 bid, one of two bids run by the Bay Area in 02 committee, has been dropped due to the loss of their main hotel, the Argent. The Argent (named the ANA in 1993) had welcomed the prospective Worldcon, but received a firm offer from mundanes and sold the space. With the loss of the Argent, the SF in 02 committee decided that the San Francisco bid was not viable and withdrew it.

Fortunately, they had gotten an attractive offer from San Jose, a city about 60 miles south of San Francisco at the other end of Silicon Valley and had already launched a bid for it as well, prefering to let fandom vote to choose between the two sites. San Jose is now their sole entry into the 2002 race. This race will be decided at Aussiecon 3. The other bidder is the Roswell, NM bid.

-- Mark Olson

24 June 1999