Summary: Large Butler County events can’t always be held within the county, according to Jordan Grady. Learn about how a convention center could be in the county’s future.

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An annual event put on by the Butler County Chamber of Commerce grew to the point where it had to be moved into Allegheny County last year because Butler County doesn’t have a space big enough for the number of expected attendees.

While the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh - Cranberry is just over the county line, Jordan Grady, chamber president, said it would still make more sense for the chamber event to actually take place in the county. With the county’s population inching toward 210,000, the move to a third-class county status looms. The county could reach the classification when the next census is taken in 2030.

Kyle Kopko, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said the option to create a convention center authority is available to third-class counties as an amenity to provide to citizens. Once they hit the population threshold, a county may begin researching the feasibility and cost of a convention center and the potential benefits it could offer.

Grady said a large-scale events center in Butler County could have good potential, especially seeing that some events have already surpassed the capacity of most county venues.

“When you have something incredibly large, that exceeds 500 people, you’re kind of limited with spaces,” Grady said. “If at the next census we become a third-class county, the commissioners and the county want to go in that direction. I definitely think it would go well here.”

Kopko commented that other third-class counties in Pennsylvania, like Lancaster and Erie counties, have created convention center authorities. However, not all third-class counties have created an authority or even done a feasibility study on forming one.

“You’re probably not going to go through that process unless you have a vision,” Kopko said.

While the vision relies on Butler County officially reaching a population of 210,000 people, some business leaders in the county, like Grady, have already spoken about how a convention center would benefit the community.

Additionally, Amy Pack, president of Experience Butler County, said a place that could hold large-scale gatherings could make Butler County a destination for these events. Already, Butler County has been seen as an option for traveling events, namely the Can-Am Police Fire Games that came to the area in 2024, and the opportunity would only grow with more options here.

“When we have something large in the region, we work with Pittsburgh and our neighboring destination management,” Pack said. “Something we are looking at would be a meeting facility, a concert hall, all those things add to the amenities of Butler County. There are things out there we are still growing and aspiring to have.”

Lodging in Butler County is already considered for out-of-towners when Pittsburgh hosts large-scale events. Pack said the NFL Draft coming to the city next year already has hotels and bed-and-breakfasts in Butler County booked up.

Putting a convention center in Butler County could also lead to the addition of more lodging and supplemental businesses, Pack said.

“There’s lots of ways we integrate lodging into what’s happening,” Pack said. “That’s an attractive thing for the business community.”

Grady also said a convention center could have a positive impact on people living in its proximity.

As the president of the chamber, Grady communicates with county leaders and officials of other municipalities when it comes to business and economic happenings, and he said this could be extended to a potential convention center. The combination of the chamber and Experience Butler County could help to make a convention center successful should one come to fruition.

“Especially when you factor in a good chamber and a good tourism bureau that would have a big role in this, I think it would really have a big impact,” Grady said.

Butler County has not yet hit a population of 210,000. The 2020 U.S. Census estimated the county’s population at 193,763 people and an estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau in July 2024 put the population at 199,341 people.

Mark Gordon, chief of economic development and planning for Butler County, said the county would embark on a study before commencing any work on actually developing an events center, but it would be up to county leadership to kickstart a project like that.

Gordon said he has been approached by organizers who have put on events in Monroeville who said areas in Butler County would be good fits for their events — if only there was a space big enough within the county.

“You look at the southern tier of our county, they have won accolades on being the safest places in the country, being the top 10 of the nation,” Gordon said. “Education — Mars, Seneca Valley, Butler, they compete with some of the top public school institutions in the commonwealth.”

Despite Gordon seeing the potential for a convention and sports center in Butler County, he said whatever eventually grows out of it would likely not look like Pittsburgh, where Acrisure Stadium, PNC Park and PPG Paints Arena all occupy space. He said Butler County’s version of this would be more in line with its own population and demographics.

One of the reasons Butler County is growing, Gordon said, is because it is attracting people who want to live in a place “different than counties around us.”

“That’s not the financial model that we run on here,” Gordon said of Allegheny County’s large-scale event centers. “Even our fundamental infrastructure here, we haven’t gone to the federal government or state for a handout. We have leveraged county money, state money, federal money, private investment and that's the funding model where people have skin in the game.”

Grady agreed that while Butler County may be growing because it has a lower tax rate than surrounding counties and has many rural areas, a convention center could be placed strategically to avoid making too big an impact on people already living here.

“This could be featured in the center part of the county, which would help us attract visitors into a part of the county that isn’t directly connected to the highway,” Grady said.

With about five years to go before the next Census is tabulated, Grady said conversations that unfold between now and 2030 could further develop if or how a convention center authority will be considered.

“It's a pretty exciting thing that Butler County could have,” Grady said.