INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The National FFA Convention that draws several thousand teenagers will be held in Indianapolis for the next nine years under a $4.5 million deal with state officials.
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Gov. Mike Pence joined city and FFA officials at Wednesday's announcement that the annual convention will return next year and remain through 2024. The state will provide $500,000 a year in incentives for the event.
The group that promotes agricultural education was already scheduled to hold its convention in Indianapolis from 2016 to 2018 after a three-year run in Louisville, Kentucky, where it has drawn an estimated 60,000 annual visitors.
The convention was in Indianapolis the previous seven years.
The FFA decision comes after tourism-related businesses in Indianapolis were shaken by this spring's national outcry over the state's new religious objections law.
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