COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus will roll out the red carpet Wednesday for a delegation from the Democratic National Committee looking at the city as a possible site of the party’s 2016 national nominating convention.
Mayor Michael Coleman and former Gov. Ted Strickland will be among the local luminaries to attend a welcoming rally Wednesday morning at Battelle Plaza, outside Nationwide Arena, at the corner of Nationwide Boulevard and Front Street.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention Technical Advisory Group will be studying things like transportation, hotels and meeting spaces.
The convention is expected to cost about $60 million but officials working to bring it to Columbus say it could draw as many as 45,000 people and pump $150 to $200 million into the economy of Central Ohio.
New York, Philadelphia Phoenix and Birmingham, Ala., are the other cities in contention.
The national committee is expected to make a decision by the end of the year.
The Republican National Committee earlier this year announced it would hold its 2016 convention in Cleveland.