Los Angeles is spending $5.9 billion to expand our convention center.
This will cost taxpayers around $100 million a year18 for the next 30 years.

That’s $100 million that won’t be available to spend on infrastructure, public safety, or city services.

Background
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When the city first proposed expanding the convention center in 2015, the budget was expected to be:
$470M
Over the next 10 years, the project was repeatedly delayed, and costs ballooned.
The final project budget:
$3.05B

After capitalized interest and bond insurance. This is six and a half times the original budget.

Total cost after debt payments:
$5.90B

What Los Angeles will actually pay over the life of the bonds.

The convention center expansion made sense in 2015 at $470 million. But is it a good use of money when it costs 12x as much?

Bars to scale · full width = $5.9B lifetime cost spent $470.00M of $5.9B

But what if we had spent it on the basics?

Every year, through 2055, Los Angeles taxpayers will spend around $100 million on convention center payments. We made this tool so you can see what this money could have been spent on instead.

Drag the sliders below to explore what we could’ve done
Money left to spend:
$100,000,000
Added to the budget:
$0
Every Convention Center dollar has been redirected into services.

What $100 Million Buys

Total added to the budget for city services $0

The Convention Center will never break even

According to the CAO’s analysis, over the entire lifespan of the convention center, this expansion will never break even. Extrapolating this data, it would take until 2080.

nominal dollars

But that’s not all. Experts believe that the CAO’s revenue estimates are optimistic.

“There’s every indication that the revenues that the CAO’s staff have estimated are very unlikely to occur for a number of reasons, which means the fiscal implications are far more serious, indeed dire, than I think the council and the mayor and ultimately the public have been led to believe.”
Heywood Sanders
Professor Emeritus of Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio
Expert on public projects & government spending
Read More: Why this convention center expert is calling LA’s expansion plan a disaster - Torched →

Drag through the graphic to see the city's own 30-year projection. Every year adds to the running General Fund cost, and the line never climbs back to zero. This is the CAO's optimistic case.

nominal dollars
FY2029 FY2058 · CAO ends ~2080

Full 30-year projection table (nominal $ thousands)
The CAO’s 30-year projection for the Convention Center expansion, FY2029–2058, in thousands of nominal dollars. Figures in the source shown in parentheses are negative here. The cumulative column is derived by summing the General Fund impact; every other column is the CAO’s. FY2057–58 carry no debt service because the final lease payment is made in FY2056, which is why those two years show a surplus.
FY Total revenues Operating cost Net debt service Incremental tax GF impact Cumulative
2029 37,167 −40,040 −40,734 628 −42,979 −42,979
2030 67,348 −41,681 −145,457 6,922 −112,869 −155,848
2031 78,126 −42,899 −192,695 9,469 −147,999 −303,847
2032 82,660 −44,063 −192,690 13,216 −140,876 −444,723
2033 87,766 −45,378 −192,688 12,967 −137,332 −582,055
2034 93,063 −46,474 −192,689 13,844 −132,257 −714,312
2035 95,283 −47,622 −192,687 15,612 −129,413 −843,725
2036 98,001 −48,812 −192,687 16,786 −126,711 −970,436
2037 100,758 −50,033 −192,684 17,626 −124,332 −1,094,768
2038 103,552 −51,432 −192,689 18,134 −122,436 −1,217,204
2039 105,385 −52,562 −192,689 18,712 −121,154 −1,338,358
2040 108,330 −53,877 −192,684 18,757 −119,474 −1,457,832
2041 112,018 −55,239 −192,686 20,277 −115,630 −1,573,462
2042 115,189 −56,620 −192,684 22,761 −111,355 −1,684,817
2043 118,450 −58,206 −192,684 21,930 −110,509 −1,795,326
2044 121,748 −59,488 −192,688 22,385 −108,042 −1,903,368
2045 125,136 −60,975 −192,690 23,031 −105,498 −2,008,866
2046 128,191 −62,678 −192,689 23,421 −103,556 −2,112,422
2047 131,811 −64,040 −192,690 26,646 −98,273 −2,210,695
2048 135,539 −65,834 −192,684 24,458 −98,521 −2,309,216
2049 138,072 −67,284 −192,690 26,573 −95,329 −2,404,545
2050 142,307 −68,976 −192,689 27,373 −91,986 −2,496,531
2051 145,809 −70,676 −192,685 28,348 −89,204 −2,585,735
2052 149,956 −72,443 −192,688 30,824 −84,350 −2,670,085
2053 154,228 −74,472 −192,688 29,836 −83,096 −2,753,181
2054 158,532 −76,113 −192,685 30,686 −79,580 −2,832,761
2055 162,952 −78,016 −192,686 31,662 −76,087 −2,908,848
2056 166,961 −79,938 −128,389 31,934 −9,432 −2,918,280
2057 171,702 −81,936 — 37,759 127,525 −2,790,755
2058 176,483 −84,229 — 32,692 124,946 −2,665,809
Total 3,612,523 −1,802,036 −5,131,768 655,269 −2,665,809 −2,665,809
Still committed $100,000,000
Redirected $0