CLEVELAND — Four years ago this week, preparations were underway inside and above the Huntington Convention Center for Major League Baseball's Play Ball Park. Yes, in attracting the 2019 mid-summer classic, Cleveland had to pitch not just Progressive Field for the game itself but also show they had the ability and the space to host this family-friendly fan experience.
It's just one of the many events, like the NFL Draft, the NBA All-Star, and the Republican National Convention, that the city was able to attract because of the nearly half-billion dollar convention center that opened ten years ago this month.
Look back at News 5's coverage of the opening of the convention center in 2013:
"Some of these super events that we've had, without the Huntington Convention Center, they just would not have happened," said Convention Center General Manager Ron King in looking back on the ten years since the center opened in June of 2013. "We've generated over $1 billion in economic impact from the convention center in the last ten years."
The center spent its first seven years building business when the pandemic hit, grinding the industry as a whole to a halt.
"You know, '20 and '21 were really down years for us. We had to lay off over 70% of our employees, which we're building back now — '23 is a rebuilding year," King said. "'Twenty-four and out are looking strong, so everything is looking very positive for the future."
The convention center is in the midst of its first major expansion since opening after Cuyahoga County Council last fall approved $40 million to take over the Global Center for Health Innovation and make it an extension of the Convention Center.
"What we're doing is we're adding primarily meeting space and an expanded ballroom," said King. "We did a survey, and we also hired a consultant about four years ago and discovered that where we really are weak with our package in Cleveland is on meeting room space, especially meeting room space from 3,000 to 5,000 square feet. So with this expansion, we're adding that meeting space, we're doubling the size of our atrium ballroom, we're adding a 10,000 square foot rooftop terrace for event space."
King said it's already paying off.
"We've actually already had a few bookings, one booking that we had that, if not for that atrium space that we've added, would not have come to Cleveland, and it's a three-year booking. It's going to be huge for us and the city of Cleveland."
The work will be completed by next summer's ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) Convention. It is literally one of the biggest gets in the convention industry because it is a convention of convention planners.
"It's as big in many ways as the RNC," said Destination Cleveland President and CEO David Gilbert. "It is by far the largest gathering of meeting and convention planners and decision-makers in the country. Somewhere between $200 million and $500 million in new future convention business will be booked as a direct result of those people coming to Cleveland seeing it for themselves and making a decision that this is the place that they want to be."
