CONVENTION CENTER AUTHORITY ANNOUNCES JULY NUMBERS

CONVENTION CENTER AUTHORITY ANNOUNCES JULY NUMBERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2014

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Convention Center Authority announced this morning that the Music City Center generated over $28 million in economic impact during the month of July.

The Music City Center hosted 24 events with 81,458 attendees, generating 19,128 room nights for a total of $28.7 million in economic impact. Tax collections continue to outperform projections and the Music City Center portion of tax collections was up 15.53 percent year over year for May 2014.

The Music City Center welcomed 6,000 association executives, hospitality industry professionals and corporate partners this week for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Over half of this year's participants are the decision makers for their association's future convention locations and experience shows that 20 percent of these association executives will book a meeting in the host city, generating an additional $500 million in revenue over the next five to ten years.

"74 percent of this year's conference attendees had not been to Nashville in the last 15 years," said Charles Starks, President/CEO of the Music City Center. "It was a great opportunity for us to show them what we have to offer and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. All the association executives loved the building and downtown Nashville and want to get their respective organizations back here as soon as possible."

Looking forward, the Music City Center already has over 240 events and 2 million room nights booked through 2026 and the sales team is working on an additional 289 tentative events.

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About the Music City Center

The Music City Center, Nashville’s convention center, features a 353,143 square foot exhibit hall, the 57,500 square foot Karl F. Dean Grand Ballroom, and an 18,000 square foot Davidson Ballroom. The building includes an art collection featuring local and regional artists, a covered three-level parking garage with 1,800 spaces, and is LEED Gold certified. The Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame is also located inside the Music City Center at the corner of 6^th Avenue and Demonbreun.