This July’s Republican National Convention could draw up to 50,000 visitors and generate an estimated $200 million economic impact for the Milwaukee area.
What backs up those estimates? How do they compare with the last fully staged RNC? And how does this summer’s convention rank among other big Milwaukee events, such as the National Basketball Association finals in 2021, or Northwestern Mutual’s annual meeting?
Here’s what we know.
RNC economic estimate tied to 2016 convention
The Republican Party’s 2016 convention (the 2020 meeting was scaled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic) provides one basis for estimating the 2024 impact on the Milwaukee area.
One study commissioned by the RNC 2016 host committee estimated the convention attracted approximately 48,000 visitors to the Cleveland area.
The economic impact included $110.1 million in direct convention-related spending, plus $78.3 million…
