New Nashville Convention Center Already Booking

This article entitled “2 large groups book Music City Center” appeared in the Nashville Business Journal on June the 18th, 2009. The Journal reports:

“Two large associations representing 40,300 booked room nights in all have signed on to hold their conventions at the yet unbuilt Music City Center.

The American Trucking Association will convene at the new downtown convention center for five consecutive years beginning in 2013, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau announced today.

Also, the bureau says the American Choral Directors Association is expected to fill the center in February 2013.

“These two conventions represent exactly why we need a new downtown convention center, and that’s being able to attract new and returning conventions to our city,” says Nashville Mayor Karl Dean in a release.

The Choral Directors will use the new center as well as the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in 2013.

So far, 12 organizations have booked 21 events at the new Music City Center, bringing more than 207,300 hotel room nights to the books before the city has even broken ground on the massive 1.2 million square foot planned center.

“Music City is an extremely attractive destination for meeting planners, and the new Music City Center gives us the opportunity to sell the city to groups that are currently unable to come here due to the lack of adequate space,” says NCVB President Butch Spyridon.

Metro Council recently gave the city approval to purchase the land for the Music City Center. The center is currently in the pre-development phase.”

There is little doubt that a new convention center in needed in Nashville; however, Nashville citizens are still not convinced the city can afford to build it in this economy. I personally make the argument that we cannot afford not to build it as I believe that the best way to exit a recession is to build your way out of it. Prime historical examples of this theory are Eisenhower’s interstate highway system and Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’.

Nashville Convention Center Booking Update – 9/2/2009

The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that September will welcome 43,100 people to Music City for conventions and meetings, up slightly from the 43,000 August visitors but down from the 49,000 convention attendees in July. These 43,000 people will be attending 42 separate conventions.