According to a news release, the city and county are forming a committee to draw up applications to host the conventions, where Democrats and Republicans will nominate their contenders for the presidency.
County Executive Ed FitzGerald will ask council to kick in $2.5 million for the bid -- and he and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson also hope to offer up police to man the event.
Presidential nominating conventions are far more expensive than that. It’s estimated a city might have to raise as much as $50 million from businesses to pull one off.
When FitzGerald was asked last month about a possible bid, he said the new convention center and hotels going up in downtown Cleveland would boost the city’s case.
“If you go back into history and look at when we’ve tried to get conventions and failed before, a lot of times it was hinging the fact that we didn’t have the hotel capacity, so I think it’ll help," FitzGerald said at the time.
Cleveland has applied for presidential conventions taking place in 2008 and 2012, but came up short.
Cincinnati and Columbus -- as well as Kansas City, Las Vegas and others -- are reportedly also considering convention bids.
