Kansas City wants to host 2024 Republican National Convention. Would it be worth it?

More than seven years ago, as they sought to land the 2016 Republican National Convention, Kansas City officials and civic leaders put up what a site selection official called an “all-in effort.”

The courtship included millions of dollars in cash pledges from local businesses and governments, an offer to build $7 million worth of new hospitality spaces and suites downtown, and a formal dinner for 300 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, complete with fireworks.

Cleveland was the winning bidder. But this week, Kansas City indicated its interest in trying again, this time for the 2024 RNC.

Mayor Quinton Lucas’ spokeswoman said a delegation from the city was in Washington Tuesday to discuss the possibility with the Republican National Committee. Kansas City was one of 34 cities invited to bid, according to a GOP spokeswoman. Bids are due by December 1.

If the city decides to go forward, it will be competing for an event that has lost some of its luster over the last two decades. Security costs, disruption and inconvenience for residents, and promises of local economic bonanzas that experts say are overblown have combined to shrink the traditional number of contending cities.

And last year, the COVID-19 pandemic upended scheduled conventions for the Democrats in Milwaukee and the Republicans in Charlotte . It forced the parties to change their programming, costing both cities tens of thousands of visiting party members and journalists. Some of those changes, such as speeches and other events held virtually, could become permanent.

“The key risk for cities that are our bidding for the 2024 cycle is that we just don’t know how much of these traditional conventions are coming back, and what type of numbers of people they can expect to show up and therefore what type of economic impact they can count on,” said Eric Heberlig, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, who has studied political party conventions.

Economic impacts

Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, a major promoter of Missouri tourism, is certain hosting a convention would provide a “boost” to the state’s economy.

“Missouri is a great destination state and Kansas City would be an ideal host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention,” he said Tuesday in a written statement. “Large conventions such as this are good for small businesses and the local economy.”

Neither Kansas City nor its tourism arm, Visit KC, had projections Tuesday of how much revenue the RNC would produce for hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

One number that’s been floated is $200 million, which officials in Cleveland said would be generated by the 2016 Republican National Convention. Two studies commissioned the party in 2017 found more modest impacts: $68 million and $110 million. Las Vegas’ mayor, who has said that city will bid for the 2024 convention, has repeated the $200 million figure.

Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts who has studied decades of Republican and Democratic conventions, said the figures are exaggerated.

In a 2017 study of both parties’ 2008 and 2012 conventions, Matheson found the events, on average, generated 29,000 room-nights for local hotels above occupancy during a normal summer week — resulting in an additional $20 million in hotel revenue.

But the also conventions “crowd out” other forms of downtown summer business, as locals stay away and certain districts are closed off for security reasons, Matheson said.

That’s part of the reason fewer cities are interested in hosting, Heberlig said. He’s found that since 9/11, which brought heightened security rules to the events, about half as many cities have submitted bids. The federal government picks up the tab for security, but local governments are responsible for coordinating police coverage and usually need to contract with other departments to staff the event.

“When you have to interrupt the normal operations of your city to host the convention, that means the normal economic activity that you’re earning money from anyway is offset by the convention activities,” Heberlig said. “So fewer cities thought that that cost-benefit ratio was working in their favor after 9/11.”

It’s an expensive task for local host committees, who are expected to raise upwards of $60 million. Just bidding for the 2016 RNC cost Kansas City $850,000, including more than $250,000 from taxpayers, The Star reported in 2014.

Then there’s the increased threat of violence in national politics, as evidenced by January’s U.S. Capitol insurrection led by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The decision to bid for the Republican convention has already generated controversy among local Democrats. City Councilman Eric Bunch said on Twitter he would not support the city’s efforts, because the “GOP has capitulated to violent extremists and racists.”

Neither the Jackson County nor Missouri GOP could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Future of conventions

Experts agreed that host cities can benefit intangibly through media exposure and positive coverage. Parties have continued to push, Heberlig said, for “lavish productions.”

It remains uncertain how much the pandemic will change that.

Last year, the planned Milwaukee DNC went largely virtual, with Democratic nominee Joe Biden giving a speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Del. and delegates casting their votes from their home states in a popular video compilation.

The planned Charlotte RNC was abruptly moved to Jacksonville after North Carolina officials declined to allow then-President Donald Trump a packed crowd. Then subsequent Jacksonville event was also canceled. Some much smaller meetings were ultimately still held in Charlotte.

“I do think conventions will be different and that elements of them will be spread around the country and brought into the convention hall on film or on video,” said Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist and director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California.

Shrum said a Kansas City RNC sounded unlikely, given that parties tend to hold conventions in more competitive states and Kansas and Missouri are both solidly Republican.

The Star’s Anna Spoerre contributed reporting.