How Conventions Can Boost Communities

 

This spring, Phoenix Fan Fusion – an annual three-day fan convention held in Downtown Phoenix – hit a new attendance record of 130,145 people for the weekend of June 6-8. This greatly surpassed the previous record of 106,069 attendees in 2016, showing an encouraging recovery post-COVID. Conventions like Phoenix Fan Fusion often boast the appearance of big names in the acting and voice acting industry and provide artists, authors and small businesses a place to connect with consumers. Additionally, fans have a place to engage with their favorite media and meet others who share the same interests, while the local economy gets a boost from increased activity.

Providing space for connection Convention centers like the one that houses Phoenix Fan Fusion host all kinds of events throughout the year, driving business to the local economy. Events you might find at your local convention center can range from professional to more niche topics, such as: the Consumer Electronics Show, the Twins Day Festival, the World of Concrete, the International Pizza Expo, a celebrity impersonators convention and much more. Events like these aren’t just all fun and games for the city they are in. Depending on the size and nature of the convention, attendees may fly in from out of state and need lodging, transportation, and meals. These events can help smaller cities become better known, and the economic impact may be huge. For example, the San Diego Convention Center – ranked in the top five best convention centers in the U.S. by The Wall Street Journal – boasted a record-breaking regional impact of $1.5 billion in its annual report last year. The top-grossing event of the fiscal year was Comic-Con International: San Diego, which brought in 135,000 attendees and an estimated $161.1 million worth of regional impact. By comparison, the National Football League, which boasts the highest revenue of any American professional sport, had an average of around 67,000 attendees per game in 2024. In analyzing data from 2019, Exhibit City News found that the convention industry didn’t just have higher attendance than both the NFL and Major League Baseball – it also had higher revenue. However, some places have struggled to rebound to their pre-pandemic numbers, which can turn those profits into costs.

The cost of space Having a convention center offers a lot of opportunities for a city, but it can also cost a lot to run. For many cities, maintaining and operating a convention center can look less like large, successful fan conventions and more like an uphill battle – one that some people feel is not worth the financial toll, as ”most of the 175 convention centers across the country operate at a loss,” according to a New York Times interview published last year. Regardless of the cost, many cities continue to invest millions into convention centers. Among the many projects currently taking place across the country are the $600 million renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s legacy campus, a $71.3 million expansion of the Three Rivers Convention Center in Seattle, a new $71 million convention center being built in Bloomington, Ind., and the planned $1 billion reconstruction of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. Though they may be hundreds of miles apart, these cities all have something in common: hope that the investment will bring new activity to their local communities and “attract conventioneers from around the state and nation.”

Making it local Is your city or state currently carrying out (or considering) a convention center expansion? If so, identifying how it’s being funded and what the project hopes to achieve in economic gain for the community can be interesting to learn. For some of the projects listed above, some are skeptical if the millions invested will actually pay off for the area, and you may have a similar issue in your own community. Aside from looking at the real estate and local government side of things, there is also a travel and retail angle to conventions. According to the U.S. Travel Association, travel spending for meetings and events alone amounted to $126 billion across the U.S. last year.  Events going on in your area can make for fun activities and may help community members make new connections. After all, at the end of the day, that’s what conventions like Phoenix Fan Fusion are about – bringing people together. -REYNOLDS CENTER