THE CITY GRAND OLD PROFITS

SO YOU MISSED Mardi Gras this year, eh? Well, there’s always the convention.

Yes, you Democrats and Independents had better hang on tight to your loyalties. These Republicans not only mean business, they’re having fun.

“Fun” may be an understatement. It’s fullblown convention fever, and it’s highly infectious. In fact, it’s practically seductive. The Republicans (and the non-partisan folks on the various planning committees) are bursting with such enthusiasm that they may well convert you before you know it.

It’s shaping up to be quite a lesson in How to Throw a Major Political Convention for Fun and Profit. The “fun and profit” go hand in hand this time around. Whereas Republicans have always had a reputation for being stodgy, all-business types, this is their big chance to break that stereotype with a massive demonstration of how one can be all-business and throw a huge party at the same time.

This is very much a Dallas political convention. It drips with Dallas-ness. It’s big. It’s wild. It kicks up its heels, cowpoke-style, but with that sheen of high-tech slick-ness that our city has pioneered. In short, it has style and that funny kind of coolness that Dallas possesses-a coolness that hides beneath the surface so it can jump out and surprise unbelievers when the time is ripe.

If there’s one thing Dallas can handle, it’s a convention. Among convention cities, Dallas was ranked No. 3 last year in the number of meetings hosted, and the city’s sights are set on becoming No. 1. In 1983, nearly 2,000 conventions brought more than two million visitors to town. This meant around $600 million in “fresh money” from outside, making the convention business the fourth largest industry in the city and providing jobs for about 70,000 people.

If you’ve ever wondered how Dallas manages to support the large number of retail businesses located here, remember those extra two million out-of-towners. There’s an urge to spend money when visiting a new city, and that’s partly what keeps a lot of our restaurants, hotels and stores going.

And 1984 is Dallas’ busiest convention year yet. Before the Republicans arrive in August, the city will have hosted 28 major conventions and 170,000 conventioneers.

The Republican extravaganza will be the icing on the cake, bringing perhaps 25,000 people. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has contracted with 125 hotels for a total of nearly 23,000 rooms-and delegates and media people pay their own bills. This suggests an awful lot of meals, taxi rides and “Dallas” T-shirts.

Charlie Bass of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau has been monitoring these events for years and has developed a tried-and-true formula for figuring the economic impact of specific conventions by size. Counting only the out-of-pocket cash spent by visitors while in the city (for rooms, food, transportation, shopping, etc.), Bass conservatively estimates an immediate fiscal impact of $20 million during convention week.

But the direct economic benefit of the Republican Convention will be peanuts, since other 1984 conventions will be much bigger. The National Association of Homebuilders or the Southern Baptists, for example, bring as many as 55,000 people to town.

The real benefit of this convention is publicity. For a week or so, the whole world will be watching Dallas, and the long-range impact of that attention cannot be quantified. As Bill Cooper, co-chairman of the Dallas Convention Fund Committee, says, “That’s really what it’s all about. It’s a media event. We couldn’t buy the millions of dollars in publicity that Dallas will get. The news is among the most-watched kind of TV programming, and when the president is involved, it’s all over the world. So the long-range economic advantages are these: One, any city that can handle a major political convention is looked upon by the convention people as one that can handle any convention. You’re on record: If you can manage a political convention, you can do ’em all; Two, industries located somewhere else in the United States or in a foreign country will read about us in the paper and say, ’Hey, I thought the cowboys shot it out in the middle of the dusty streets every Saturday night. I didn’t realize Dallas was such a nice place!’ And with the city we have to sell, all we need is that exposure.”

Exposure there will be. The press will outnumber the conventioneers three to one. The 2,000 visiting delegates, 2,000 alternates and maybe another 2,000 miscellaneous Republican VIPs will be pursued by more than 15,000 reporters and technical crew members. And these aren’t just any media types; such a prestigious event draws the big-name anchor people. ABC alone will have almost 2,000 people in town and has requested 810 rooms. CBS needs 650 rooms for three weeks. CNN will bring in about 500 people for the same period.

What will make the press turnout really staggering, however, are the 600 local TV station representatives and the biggest foreign press contingent in presidential convention history. This is partly due to the recent breakthroughs in “minicam” technology: The smaller, portable equipment makes it feasible for almost any small, independent station to do its own on-the-spot coverage. (For example, before minicams, only 60 local stations bothered to cover the Detroit convention.)

The city-and the Dallas Convention Center in particular-are going all-out to accommodate every last member of these crews. This means installing whole broadcast studios, anchor booths and office spaces inside the hall. Sixty or 70 mobile news vans and trailers will be parked inside the building in what was once the second-level parking area. Forty “earth stations” will surround the complex for satellite linkups, and more than 7,000 telephones will be brought in just to serve the media.

Between convention reports, all those crews will be searching for human-interest stories about the host city. Dallas convention leaders hope that this will amount to a week-long free commercial for Dallas. Fred Meyer, chairman of the Dallas Republican Host Committee, says, “The media attention will modify and expand the rest of the world’s perception of Dallas, and any immediate economic benefits pale in comparison. We will be perceived as a place where there is political leadership and activity, as a significant spot in the scheme.”

Bass says, “If it in any way provides us with the publicity that the show Dallas does, we’ll be deliriously happy. Like that show or not, it’s the greatest marketing piece the city’s ever had.”

But getting the press to see Dallas in its best light will require some careful planning. Journalists will be faced not only with the smothering climate of Dallas in August every time they step outside, but they already will have been through some pretty tiring events: the Democratic Convention in San Francisco and the Olympics in Los Angeles. So a number of groups here have taken it as a challenge to make sure the visitors see us at our very best. They intend, in other words, to throw a party our visitors won’t forget.

Much of the hospitality will come from the Dallas Welcoming Committee, a non-partisan group dedicated to showing everyone a good time. With the help of umpteen volunteers, a cultural committee and others, the group will make sure that the Dallas peacock shows every feather of its plumage.

Among the special events being planned to showcase the city are air shows, rodeos, a full-scale parade for and with Olympic medal winners, family entertainment at the Cotton Bowl, a benefit party at the Communications Center for the Children’s Medical Center and the USA Film Festival, armadillo races and chili cookoffs at Fair Park, an Apparel Mart fashion extravaganza, performing arts at City Hall, Dallas Ballet performances, a polo match, a “foods and arts” outdoor shebang to show off the Arts District and an open inter-religious ceremony at ThanksGiving Square. They’re even working on a cattle drive.

To make the press people’s jobs easier, the Welcoming Committee is working with the local firm of Holmes/Hopkins to provide a media fact book on Dallas, assistance to foreign visitors in finding housing and translators, a working press room on-site (with computer links to the Dallas Public Library and seven different data banks) and a phone line for media information. If someone needs to know who to talk to about throwing power cables over the side of a building, they’ll help cut through the red tape.

The Welcoming Committee is also planning to take up to 4,000 press people on familiarization bus tours of the city-tours to show not only the pretty houses and booming business districts, but (theoretically) to show everything. As Helen Holmes of Holmes/Hopkins explains it, “They’ll see that Dallas is an open city. We don’t want this to be just a ’North Dallas’ convention; we want to reach out to all parts of the city, to invite the whole community to take part and have fun with it.” In other words, no one’s trying to hide anything.

But then comes the big question: Who’s footing the bill for this party?

The strictly Republican end of things is federally funded, of course. The Republican National Committee has been allocated $6.2 million to take care of delegates and VIPs, construction costs, security, transportation, building and decoration of the podium area and other tasks. The Dallas Republican Host Committee coordinates much of this, but it depends in large part on volunteers (the committee expects 20,000 altogether).

Then there’s the non-partisan side. The City of Dallas is providing the services it normally provides for any convention: security, police overtime, Convention Center facilities and more. But, because the city charter prohibits it from spending tax dollars on political conventions, all special needs of the convention are financed by funds collected from the private sector only. This $3.9 million is being raised by the City of Dallas Convention Fund Committee, co-chaired by Bill Cooper and Trammell Crow. In contrast to San Francisco, where $7 to $9 million from general tax revenues are being used to foot the Democrats’ bill, not a dime of Dallas taxpayers’ money is being used. “Doing it the Dallas way” is the way Cooper refers to it.

This would be difficult to pull off in most cities, but Dallas has a long history of financial support for such projects. It’s an impressive testimony to the business community’s willingness to pull together. Local donations are being rounded up by various volunteer committees, each assigned to a specific industry by Crow and Cooper, who work quite a few stray calls themselves.

According to Cooper, local businesses and individuals are being even more generous than expected-although one wonders if it would be the same if this were the Democratic Convention. “Right now, it’s going faster than I can keep up with,” says Cooper. “This morning, I learned of about $50,000 that’s just waiting for me to go pick it up. But $3.9 million takes nearly 800 $5,000 contributions. That’s a lot of calls for 32 chairmen to make. And you can’t get it on the telephone; you can’t get it with letters. You’ve gotta go in there face to face.”

Of that $3.9 million, roughly $2 million goes for security measures. Half a million is divided between enhancing the Convention Center’s sound and lighting systems and adding special tiered seating (so that each delegate can see the podium). Another $500,000 pays for the Welcoming Committee’s efforts, and $50,000 buys $100 million worth of insurance for RNC Committee members, press and equipment during the convention.

Those numbers represent a relatively minor cash outlay, however, considering the number of local businesses and workers whose services will be heavily involved. All news media support services will be busy: free-lance technicians and consultants, overnight mail companies, satellite dish outfits and Western Union. Southwestern Bell, AT&T and Dallas Power & Light will also have plenty to do. There won’t be enough taxicabs to go around, and more than 200 buses will have to make their way through the Dallas street systems to deliver about 18,000 people to Reunion Arena at the proper times. ARA Food Services will be feeding delegates and press for 20 hours a day, and countless lesser food and beverage concessions will be open, too. You won’t be able to rent a car for 50 miles around Dallas. National Car Rental, for instance, has had to contract with outlying cities to get cars that are already reserved.

Hotels will be staffed to the hilt-that means something like 60,000 hotel-related workers on the job that week. The Hyatt Regency, headquarters hotel for the convention, will certainly be feeling the excitement, mingled with the added pressure of coordinating security with the `RNC. According to Hyatt public relations director Lynn Snoyer, the hotel staff is ready for it, but it’ll mean a lot of little extras here and there: for example, keeping the restaurants open four hours later at night to accommodate people who come in from late convention meetings.

The Convention Center staff will need perhaps 125 more temporary helpers than usual to deal with such things as the 17,000 chairs needed inside the hall. Every inch of the building’s 1,854,000 square feet will be in use, and for a much longer period than most trade shows require (move-in by some crews starts as early as June 11). The logistics involved are stupendous, especially where security is concerned. Enough airport-style magnetometers and credential checkpoints will be needed to process the 18,000 people going to and from the center, and the entire new west wing is being converted to press offices.

Freeman Decorating Co. has contracted for on-site construction and support for the media. Since the main exhibit hall is normally just a bare, echoing concrete space, this means building skyboxes, seating on scaffolding, offices and the big rostrum/podium, in addition to TV lighting, wiring and sound-all from scratch. That’s another 400 or so temporary jobs.

Then there’s the money to be made from novelties, souvenirs, geegaws and doodads. Anything with an elephant or the words “Dallas” or “1984” should do well in airports, hotels and gift shops; some are already cropping up here and there. The city has its own “official” line of novelties: some 45 items (culled from 300 applicants) that will bear the authorized “Dallas 1984” welcoming logo. A professional sales team, coordinated by Texas Novelty Co. (“Official Merchandiser for the ’84 Convention”), hit retail outlets in April with such must-haves as the official Texas-shaped cutting board, red-white-and-blue Womplt dolls, elephant-shaped jellybean containers and foam “No. 1” SpiritHands, as well as the usual logo-emblazoned hats, T-shirts and pennants.

Entrepreneurs with even wackier items will be able to vend their less official wares at the Gift Bazaar at Market Hall. Here one may find some 300 booths (costing vendors $600 each) loaded with Western art, baskets of Texas produce, Texas wine, chili and praline packages, antique furniture and the long-awaited bluebonnet-flavored lollipops. “J.R. for President” bumper stickers should sell like crazy; indeed, the opportunities for entrepreneurial ingenuity should be nearly limitless.

Indirectly related to the convention are many large and small renovation projects that are already in progress. For these, the convention provided a handy self-imposed deadline. If you’re working on a project, the thinking goes, why not finish it by the time the cameras turn on Dallas? Young and Wood streets are getting $4 million in improvements, a public plaza is under construction at Young and Griffin, and the whole downtown area is undergoing a major sprucing-up. The underground tunnel connecting Reunion Tower and Union Station will display a history of Dallas in photography. Although the convention merely provided the main impetus to hustle through these refurbishings, they’ll nevertheless be among the nicer permanent effects.

Which brings up the “Keep A Clean Dallas” campaign and why an unmowed lawn or unpainted fence now results in a stiff fine. Those of us who’ve had to remove derelict cars from our yards know all too well the cost of possibly offending the president with unsightly evidence of a lower income (or just plain laziness). Undoubtedly, the city will look better by August, unless the $200 fines for cluttered yards cause a public backlash (already, some anti-Reagan groups are urging the citizenry to “Vote With Your Trash”).

For the most part, however, the convention promises to bring out the best in Dallas. Among the various committees and volunteers, there’s a very palpable spirit of teamwork, a surprisingly uncorny spirit that might become so contagious that only spoilsports will be immune to it. According to Doug Blazer, deputy convention manager, the most unlikely people from every nook and cranny in the city are asking how they can be part of the effort-an effort not so much to sell Reagan as to sell Dallas.

Of course, the Republicans come first; it’s their show. There are plenty of people who are volunteering just in hopes of driving Nancy Reagan on her shopping trips. But most volunteers are in it for the bigger experience of seeing so much come together in a city that rarely has such a center. As Charlie Bass points out, this convention gives us a place in history, a reason to show our best side. That’s what people want to be part of.

In the long run, the people of Dallas are the real selling point. As Bill Cooper put it: “We don’t have any oceans, and we don’t have any mountains. All we’ve got are people who care. That’s what makes this town, and that’s what’ll go out on the wire when it’s all over.”