Build it, and Conventions Will Come

Built it, and they will come. Wasn't that the sentiment from Field of Dreams?

Perhaps Salt Lake City should built it: thousands of new hotel rooms, and a fourfold expansion of the convention center.

The city is on the verge of losing its largest annual convention, the Outdoor Retailer show, which comes to town twice a year, the summer version ranking as the 44th largest convention in America.

The Salt Palace simply isn't big enough, and, what with the city not being one of the nation's largest metropolises, it has nowhere near the hotel space of say, a Chicago.

Some would call it foolhardy to expand, since the Outdoor Retail folk are going to pull out, anyway, and the city cannot come close to offering the facilities of many other cities.

But, maybe we should just build it, and see what comes.

Expand the convention space from about a half million gross square feet to 2 million gsf. Expand the hotel space within walking distance from 5,200 rooms to 10,000 rooms.

I do not know whether this can be done. Would such a convention center fit on its current parcel of land? Would we have to go too high with a skyscraper to get that many hotel rooms?

If it can be done, do it.

But, not with government money. Instead call on private donors. It will take more than one. It will take a bunch of the richest folks to be found. Tell them, this is not a for-profit thing, but a public service. The convention space and hotel rooms might need to be mothballed much of the year.

Be willing to do that. Why would that be such a bad thing, if it is not coming out of government coffers?

Build it, and see if they will come. If the city does do this, when conventions are looking for sites large enough to fit their needs, SLC will be one of the few places fitting the bill.

I say, conventions this large are out there, and are to be had. If we do built it, yes, some of them should, indeed, come.