By ideastream's Brian Bull
With an estimated 50,000 attendees, the 2016 Republican National Convention is projected to give a “bump” to Cleveland’s local economy in July. But the RNC is bumping some other big events that are also expected to draw crowds to the city.
The city is giving first dibs to the GOP to book events at more than a dozen venues, and that means some shuffling trying to book other events.
“It’s created a few minor issues, but nothing we haven’t been able to overcome,” says Bill Ryan, CEO of the Transplant Games. It's a sporting event for people who’ve received or donated organs. Event planners moved the first-ever Cleveland games from July to June next year because of the RNC.
Ryan says it’s caused some challenges for the roughly 10,000 participants, with things like school obligations, but most attendees are upbeat.
Cleveland’s Alternative Press Music Awards event is also in limbo. The event’s grown since it started here in 2014. Organizer Mike Shea says they still expect to have the 2016 ceremony in Ohio…with hopes to bring it back to Cleveland in 2017.
“Right now, we’re looking at some venues down in Columbus," says Shea. "We’ve had some overtures to move it to Nashville…we’ve had overtures to move it to Detroit…we’ve had a couple of people suggest L.A…but we just kinda feel that if we move out of state, we’ll never come back.”
Shea doesn’t blame the RNC, but says that’s nearly 9,000 alternative music fans who won’t be coming to Cleveland.
Destination Cleveland’s Jennifer Kramer says to her knowledge, no other major events are being bumped by the RNC. She says recent venue developments like the convention center are driving demand for Cleveland to host.
"Which is great, but unfortunately that also means that sometimes we can’t offer the preferred date that a group would want to come in and host their event,” she says.
Kramer says her group will work with any event planners to find a workable schedule should they run up against the 2016 RNC.