KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officials in Kansas City announced Monday they plan to bid for the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Kansas City has been down this path before, and officials are hoping the infrastructure investments made since coming up short in an effort to land the 2016 RNC will put the city on the map.
In the last several years, the city has moved forward with a $2 billion new terminal project at Kansas City International Airport that’s slated to be complete by 2023 — done in plenty of time to work out any bugs before the convention.
Closer to the ground, the city will be closer to completing a 3.5-mile, $351 million extension to its streetcar system, extending the line from Berkley Riverfront Park south to the University of Missouri - Kansas City.
In 2016, when Kansas City had hoped to host the RNC but lost out to Cleveland, KCMO tallied 15 overnight rental properties with a total of 4,228 rooms in the greater downtown area.
In 2021, those numbers grew to 21 properties with 5,560 rooms in the same area.
If you extend out to include the greater Kansas City area, the number of rooms jumps to 31,000.
With the city’s reputation to pack in entertainment districts such as Power and Light and selling out crowds to its growing number of stadiums, the city hopes the investments generate a return.
“It’s about business opportunity,” Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas said. “It’s about development opportunity for Kansas City, which as we saw last week with the World Cup bid, is a world-class city that can host any number of events.”
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