Also, before it pungles up $XX millions for a convention center hotel, Metro might read its economic study and my post of August 22 (showing that Metro's own study says the convention center hotel will at best be less than half full), and consider this question. If the new hotel increases overall room-nights in Portland by 104,000 per year, and if each room-night represents one happy conventioneer, so that for an additional 173 nights per year we have 600 additional conventioneers in Portland, how many more rentals would the convention center get? Put another way, how much convention space does a convention of 600 people rent? My sense of the convention center specs is that a 600-person convention doesn't need even one-quarter the facility, even with one area set up as a classroom for 600 (the most space-hungry use), another area set up as a banquet room for 600 (also a space-hungry use), and a third area for exhibitors to have booths.