Today's announcement that LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers may hurt the Republican Party's plans on holding their 2016 convention in the early summer.
One of the biggest reasons why the RNC chose Cleveland (other than it's in Ohio, which no Republican has ever won the White House without winning) is because the party wants to hold their convention in late June or early July in order to take advantage of tens of millions of dollars in federal election funs as early as they can in order to avoid a repeat of summer 2012, when presumptive nominee Mitt Romney was hammered over Bain Capitol and was unable to respond to the attacks since he wasn't able yet to tap into his general election campaign cash until the convention started.
Until LeBron's surprise announcement today, it seemed as if the GOP would have no problem holding their convention at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena whenever they wanted to during the summer months. After LeBron left in 2010, the Cavaliers have been unable to win a championship or even a conference title, making a convention in June seem entirely within possibility. But LeBron's return may make is possible for the Cavaliers to win the Eastern Conference and play in the finals. Although the NBA finals can end as late as the third week of June, it takes six weeks for organizers to get the convention ready, meaning the Quicken Loans Arena may not be ready for them until late July or early August.
Unfortunately for the GOP there is no other place in Cleveland for them to hold their convention. The Quicken Loans Arena has a capacity of over 20,000 and is just a short walk from several hotels. Most likely the 168-member Republican National Committee will still vote to have their convention in Cleveland, but they might end up holding it later than they wished.
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