Across the six city blocks where the Austin Convention Center used to stand, sits a giant, empty hole. Construction trucks and workers are already busy building a bigger facility. But if a Travis County judge decides voters should get a say in whether an expansion of the convention center is needed, that hole could sit — maybe for years.
The decision before District Judge Jessica Mangrum is if a citizen-initiated petition that the city denied in the fall because of a lack of valid signatures should move forward.
In January, the Austin United Political Action Committee argued its case before Mangrum as the group fought to get its petition validated. The petition seeks to stop the project completely, unless voters approve it.
The group hopes that if they get their proposition on the ballot that people would vote against a new convention center.
Bobby Levinski, an attorney representing the PAC, said instead the group supports the money going to a museum or other cultural draws, including nature hikes and art.
“There is some really great land downtown that has already been prepared for potential uses,” he said. “You could use that space for a lot of other things than just a convention center.”
But with demolition complete and construction of the convention center expansion well underway, Mangrum's decision could be pivotal in determining if the city will have a convention center at all.
Does Austin need a convention center?
More than 30 million people visit Austin annually for major events, including the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Formula One United States Grand Prix race, according to Visit Austin.
But outside of those major events, Austin has to find other ways to generate money. Allan Shearer, an urban planning professor at the University of Texas, said conventions and conferences can help do that by bringing in people who stay at hotels and spend money at restaurants, local businesses and entertainment venues that benefit the city's economy.
“What conventioneers bring is traffic and customers during the middle of the week, so it provides a more stable basis for those kinds of businesses to operate week-long, month-long, year-round,” Shearer said.
One of the Austin Convention Center’s largest events is South by Southwest that brings in people from all over the world. In 2025, more than 200,000 people attended the festival, generating $363 million for the city, according to data shared by the city of Austin.
Beyond South by Southwest, the Austin Convention Center hosts several medical, tech and other corporate companies throughout the year.
Katy Zamesnik, the center's deputy director, said the expansion would double the meeting space and make it possible to host larger events, like the Dell Technologies World conference, which moved to Las Vegas from Austin because of space constraints.
She said the new facility would also be able to host multiple conferences at the same time, reducing days that can’t be sold because of events moving in and out.
“We were turning away nearly 50% of the business leads we were getting either because we were too small or we didn't have the space.” Zamesnik said.
Are conventions a thing of the past?
As companies cut down on travel costs and transition to virtual or hybrid training opportunities, some people argue conventions and conferences could soon be irrelevant.
Levinski and other members of the group opposed to the convention center expansion seem to agree. He said there are several other venues that can host major events, including hotels, UT Austin, and the new convention center being added at the Circuit of the Americas.
But Shearer said tourism and businesses downtown, including hotels, restaurants and live music venues could suffer without the presence of the convention center.
“Again, it's the question of what could you put there that would still provide the kind of mid-week traffic of people coming in to support our restaurants and clubs," Shearer said.
Some downtown businesses are already feeling that struggle as construction on I-35 and the expansion of the convention center continues. To help bring people back to the area, the Downtown Austin Alliance offered subsidized Uber rides in December.
If the petition moves forward, and voters deny an expansion, the project would pause. Then, the city would decide what to build on that land instead. City Council must call for a May election by Feb. 13. It would be the only item on the ballot for Austinites to vote on.
