GOP convention at a glance
Total attendees: 45,000 estimated.
Estimated cost: $63.5 million ($13.5 million in federal funds plus $50 million in private funds.
Estimated economic impact: $100-$125 million in direct revenue and $200-$300 million in indirect revenue.
Delegates: 2,066 delegates and 2,066 alternates. In contrast, roughly 600 delegates attended
the first Republican convention in 1856.
Volunteers: 10,000-15,000 estimated. All volunteers will have taken at least one of 35 training sessions.
Volunteers will be driving some 500 cars and vans for transportation (420 on loan from General Motors).
Volunteers will fill 75,000 shifts, most of them at least four hours long.
Protesters: 20,000 estimated.
Media: 15,000 estimated, representing 1,500 news organizations. Five major networks, 440 daily press outlets, 330 television outlets, 217 radio outlets, 188 periodical outlets, 197 press photographers and 500,000 total square feet of media workspace.
Other: 30 megawatts of total power capacity -- enough power for 1,800 homes. Eight thousand telephone lines and 6,600 miles of fiber optic cable -- enough cable to stretch from Philadelphia to Tokyo.
Hotels/transportation: 95 hotels, 20,000 hotel rooms are reserved within a 30-minute drive of the convention site; an estimated $35,000 will be spent on electric carts.
First Union Center: A $210 million state-of-the-art high-tech facility completed in 1996. It holds 126 private suites and 14 club boxes and is home to Philadelphia Flyers (hockey), the Philadelphia 76ers (basketball), and the Philadelphia Wings (lacrosse). The facility holds up to 21,000 for basketball and 19,600 for both basketball and lacrosse It was built by 1,400 construction workers using 7,000 tons of steel, 19,000 cubic yards of concrete, 32,500 square feet of glass, 62,000 lineal feet of driven piles, 76,000 tiles and 400,000 square feet of drywall. The first event ever held at the arena was an August 31, 1996 hockey game between Team USA and Team Canada. The largest concert crowd ever to fill the First Union Center? On September 30, 1999, an audience of 21,424 gathered for a Backstreet Boys concert.
Sources of information: Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau; Philadelphia Official Visitors Guide, Spring/Summer 2000; Philadelphia News Project Briefing Papers; Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/7/00; Almanac of American Politics 2000; Philadelphia 2000 (The Host Committee for the Republican National Convention); The Republican National Convention; Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.
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