Austin News

Last November’s election gave the go-ahead for Austin’s $1 billion plan to renovate the Austin Convention Center.

Voters rejected Proposition B, allowing the City Council to move forward on its plan to expand the convention center. The city could begin the project next year. 

In the meantime, urban development expert Heywood Sanders wonders if Austin is buying the way-too-optimistic outlook that Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and other cities have adopted when they expanded their convention centers. 

“Does getting a big convention center translate into more convention business? By and large, no,” Sanders told KXAN. “Just because you have the space, doesn’t mean that you get more business.”

The city announced in January that it has hired HVS, a noted hospitality consulting organization, to do a financial analysis on plans to expand the Austin Convention Center. A memo from the city promised that the report would have extensive data and analysis––including consideration of demand. A draft of the report will be available this spring.

Sanders said the convention business is one of the most competitive businesses there is. Austin is competing against every other city of reasonable size in the country for a rotating list of state, regional and national events. 

“The national convention market isn’t growing. It’s not like there are hoards of people out there going to ever more conventions,” Sanders said. 

As the state capitol, Austin is a big draw for Texas events, Sanders said, but consider the competition.

“They are building a new convention center in Midland. They built one in Amarillo. They are planning on building one in Wichita Falls. A proposal to build one in Laredo got voted down but I expect it to be back before too long. They did an expansion of the George R. Brown Center in Houston not too long ago. They are going to do an expansion of the Fort Worth convention center before too long.”

Austin is competing in an environment in which almost all of its competitors across the state have either recently finished an expansion or are planning or anticipating doing one in the future. There are lots of choices, Sanders said.

Austin’s airport is small. When choosing a convention city, meeting planners consider how easy it is for their members to get in and out. They are looking for places where they will get good attendance, Sanders said. Convention goers want a place with frequent flights and cheap tickets. Cities with airport hubs have an advantage over Austin, where air service is modest, he said. 

Meeting planners are also looking at costs. To win business, second tier cities often give deep discounts or even waive the convention center cost altogether. Having a bigger convention hall or a newer center is not the main reason that a city is chosen for a convention, Sanders said.

The consultants tell Austin that with only 250,000 square feet, Austin’s convention center is undersized. They say conventions are bypassing Austin because the Convention Center does not have enough exhibit space. 

“‘People want to come here and our convention center is full and we can’t accommodate them.’ Every single city hears exactly the same thing," Sanders said.

 The Las Vegas Convention Center has 2 million square feet of exhibit space and they are expanding, he said.

Consultants have told city after city “build and they will come.” That has not been the case, Sanders said. Boston and Philadelphia followed their consultants advice and realized only half the increased business that they had hoped to get. One consultant who has advised Austin, Charlie Johnson, is the same consultant who advised Boston, Sanders said. 

“His guessing about how convention centers are going to perform has not been terribly good," he said. 

Sanders, who teaches political science at UT San Antonio, has been studying and tracking cities and their convention center expansions for more than 20 years. He is the author of the book Convention Center Follies. 

“If you are doing this principally with the expectation of a significant increase in convention business, it is not likely to happen,” he said.