Spokane may be the smallest city to ever host a Worldcon.
Well now, since Wikipedia now lists historical populations for US cities, that can be checked fairly easily. So I've just entertained myself gathering the then-latest census figures for Worldcon cities.
1. South Gate, 51K. Probably doesn't count, since it's a small part of a larger urban area and the convention wasn't really there anyway. 2. Miami Beach, 87K. Also part of a larger urban area. 3. Heidelberg. Don't have historical figures, but the latest is 150K. 4. Orlando, 164K. That has to count, since it's in the modern convention-center era. But it is a huge tourist center, so Worldcon doesn't stand out there. 5. Spokane, 208K.
How about that, Reno is larger, 225K. And it's also a bigger tourist town than Spokane. So for impact on the city's economy, which is what you're really trying to measure, then yes, this may be the winner.
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Well now, since Wikipedia now lists historical populations for US cities, that can be checked fairly easily. So I've just entertained myself gathering the then-latest census figures for Worldcon cities.
1. South Gate, 51K. Probably doesn't count, since it's a small part of a larger urban area and the convention wasn't really there anyway.
2. Miami Beach, 87K. Also part of a larger urban area.
3. Heidelberg. Don't have historical figures, but the latest is 150K.
4. Orlando, 164K. That has to count, since it's in the modern convention-center era. But it is a huge tourist center, so Worldcon doesn't stand out there.
5. Spokane, 208K.
How about that, Reno is larger, 225K. And it's also a bigger tourist town than Spokane. So for impact on the city's economy, which is what you're really trying to measure, then yes, this may be the winner.