The Site Selection Committee (SSC), part of the Republican National Committee, voted to narrow the list of sites in contention for the 2016 Republican National Convention from eight to six cities.
Cities moving on to the next round of consideration are Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio; Kansas City, Mo.; Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas.
“The eyes of the world will be on the RNC and our host city in summer 2016, and these six cities have shown they have what it takes to move forward,” said Enid Mickelsen, chair, Site Selection Committee. “In any other year, Columbus and Phoenix could have topped the list, but with so many strong cities competing, the committee had to make the difficult decision to narrow the field. Phoenix and Columbus are great American cities, and I hope they’ll pursue a future bid for an RNC convention.
A small team of RNC staff will visit the six cities for a more in-depth and technical look at financing, convention venues, media workspace and hotels. The SSC will reconvene soon after the RNC’s spring meeting to make a determination on which of these six cities will receive official site visits from the full RNC delegation.
After hearing the news, Positively Cleveland’s President and CEO David Gilbert released a statement:
Cleveland is proud to advance in the bid process to host the 2016 RNC National Convention and excited to host the RNC technical site selection committee in the next month. This was a collaborative effort on behalf the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Greater Cleveland Partnership, Downtown Cleveland Alliance and Positively Cleveland and we have become more strategically aligned than ever through this process.
National political conventions are the Super Bowl of meetings and conventions, it doesn’t get any bigger and better than this for a meeting and convention destination. Hosting the RNC in 2016 would provide an estimated $200 million economic impact to the Northeast Ohio economy. More than 50,000 attendees would dine in our restaurants, enjoy our local entertainment, explore our arts and culture, take our public transportation and stay in our hotels.
Cleveland is in the middle of a $3 billion revitalization of our visitor-related infrastructure, including the addition of seven new hotels and the development of our city as a destination for both business and leisure travelers. We know the RNC is looking for a host city that can provide the convention, hotel and transportation services that will translate into a good visitor experience for every delegate and we are ready to show the committee what a great choice Cleveland will be for their 2016 convention.
