Thursday, April 2, 2009
Barry / Politics / The Economy More Convention Center Math from MDHA
Posted by Bruce Barry on Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 2:10 PM
The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau has already secured letters of commitment from several national conventions for events in the new center. More than 100,000 hotel room-nights have already been booked, and more are in negotiation at this time. Among the conventions already scheduled into the new center are the Academy of General Dentistry in 2013; the American Alliance for Health, PE, Recreation and Dance in 2018; the American Association of School Administrators in 2014; the Minerals Metals and Materials, Society in 2016; the Southern Baptist Convention in 2013 and 2019, and the NCAA Women's Final Four in 2014.Is that a lot -- 100,000 room nights, spread over seven years? Should we take that number as a sign there is big-time demand for this bad boy? Here's one casual attempt to decipher the number. San Diego has a convention center that in net (usable) square feet is roughly 50 percent larger than the one proposed here. Last year the total number of room nights booked by San Diego conventioneers was just over 729,000. If we take two-thirds of that (since Nashville's proposed center is about two-thirds the size) and then multiply it by seven (since bookings to date are spread over seven years), we arrive at a rough guesstimate of a little over 3.4 million room nights to fill between 2013 and 2019.
So...100,000 room nights booked already? That's about 2.9 percent of the total. This thing is hot, I tell you, hot!
Comments (2)
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Get a grip folks, 100,000 room nights for a facility that is only on paper is HUGE. Do you work in the meetings industry? Would you book a facility that does not yet exist. I guess several people have just becasue they hope this thing flies. that is more than some cities get with buildings that exist. Do you have a clue as to who is interested in booking and who is not. Did you ever take into consideration that from the time the city says go to when the doors open is over 3 years and the building might just be full for years to come? Probably not, it sounds so much better to be negative, especially if you have no real info and idea about what you are talking about. Quite frankly is stirs more interest and sells more ads. Hopefully people with more thought than some here will make the right decision to build this facility and soon!
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This boondoggle will benefit only those who own hotels and restaurants in the vicinity.Nashville taxpayers have not even yet paid off the existing convention center. If this is such a great idea why aren't private equity firms lining up to invest in it? This is NOT a legitimate function of government. The only people supporting this are bureaucrats, hoteliers, restaurateurs and Tennessean columnists whose husbands play in downtown nightclubs. The vast majority of Nashtards derive absolutely no benefit from this obscene misuse of public funds. But I guarantee that it will be approved because the moron majority only cares about the Titans and has no interest or even awareness of such matters. White Bunny® bread and circuses for all.
