The 2008 RNC Convention by the Numbers

March 5th, 2007 · No Comments

From an AP article, and other sources, some numbers concerning the 2008 RNC Convention in St Paul:

People:

50,000 people are expected to visit the area during the convention

20,000 hotel rooms are to be reserved, including 2,000 suites

8,000 volunteers will be impressed into service

3,000 protestors’ arrests are being planned, and budgeted, for

Money:

$82 million: Predicted total RNC budget

$57 million: RNC fundraising target for the convention

$39 million: June, 2008 fundraising target

$5 million: Cost to rent the X and nearby structures for the week

$4.9 million: Cost to decorate the Xcel Energy Center and build stages and sets

$4.7 million: Insurance premiums for the convention

$4.4 million: Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office requested budget for the convention

$3.3 million: Bus charters and rentals

$2.2 million: Gift bags and similar things

(Having 50,000 of the best and brightest neoconservatives in town for a week: priceless.)

According to the AP, the last item on the list there seems particularly interesting - $2.2 million for, in their words, “gift bags and a ‘GOP experience’.” Doing the math, that’s something like forty-four dollars per person for each of the estimated fifty-thousand attendees. Something tells me, though, that most people are going to get around a ten-dollar “GOP experience”, while a handful get something more along the lines of the $100 “experience”. ($100 per hour?)

Incidentally, lodging for all the attendees should be fun; as we’ve pointed out, Saint Paul’s downtown hotels have less than 1500 rooms between them all, not even ten percent of the capacity required. That means the bulk of the attendees - and the bulk of the hospitality revenues from the convention - are going to wind up elsewhere in the metro area. Good luck getting a room that weekend…

Tags: RNC Convention · Local News

0 responses so far ↓

There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

Saint Paul 2008