North Austin News

Plans to expand the Austin Convention Center continue despite lackluster attendance in the years following the center’s previous expansion.

Last May, the city council voted to continue plans to expand the Convention Center – a project that will cost $1.2 billion. And when Austin voters headed to the polls last November, they voted against a ballot initiative that would require voter approval for any future convention center expansion and use funds collected from Austin's hotel taxes to support cultural tourism.

Despite this, industry leaders are continuing to pursue the plan. This is largely because the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau has said that 130 groups decided against hosting events in Austin due to inadequate capacity or unavailability of the Convention Center. This translated to a projected loss of $481 million in economic impact for the community.

The City of Austin has been down this road before. In 2002, the city expanded the Convention Center after voters approved the project in 1999. C.H. Johnson Consulting predicted the expansion would result in an increase in trade show events – from 47 in 1996 to 98 by 2005. Attendance for these events would rise to 329,000 by 2005, and overall attendance for the 478 events the convention center would host would be 813,000 by 2005, the consultant’s report projected.

But an analysis by KXAN Investigates of the attendance in the seven years following the expansion shows that the project did not draw the crowds the city had hoped. Instead of an increased number of trade shows events, the number dropped to 43 by 2016; and attendance that year was 328,762 – a far cry from the 2005 projection of 813,000.

Austin Convention Center Attendance

Fiscal Year	Attendance
2009	451,393
2010	328,643
2011	410,048
2012	458,091
2013	449,464
2014	463,342
2015	454,388
2016	497,156

Source: KXAN Investigate

Under the most recent expansion plan, the convention center is predicted to attract just 215 events and 702,768 attendees. Considering the estimated cost of the expansion is $1.2 billion, many believe the project is not worth the investment.

Despite the numbers, the Austin City Council approved the proposal in May 2019.

All council members – Ann Kitchen, Leslie Pool, Alison Alter, Natasha Harper-Madison, Delia Garza, Sabino “Pio” Renteria, Gregorio “Greg” Casar, Jimmy Flanigan, Paige Ellis and Kathie Tovo – voted in favor of the measure, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman.