National Agriculture Convention Returning To Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS -- A multi-million dollar state investment will bring a major youth agriculture convention back to Indianapolis.

National FFA board chairman Steve Brown made the announcement Wednesday morning.

"Through evaluation of our needs, our future growth, the National FFA board of directors has chosen to move the National FFA convention and expo back to Indianapolis for the years 2016-2024," he said.

Brown was speaking at FFA's headquarters on the far northwest side of Indianapolis. The gathering will bring 60,000 young delegates back to downtown Indy. The nine year promise is longer than what the National FFA was initially planning to comit when he was looking to leave Louisville.

Gov. Mike Pence says the state subsidized the FFA convention when it was held in Indianapolis until 2012, when it moved to Louisville. The investment is worth the economic return, Pence said.

"Just the stature that it brings to Indiana, being the gathering place for rising agriculture leaders is I think worthy of the investments we’ve made in the past and certainly worthy of the support we’re providing today," Pence told reporters.

That return of the high-profile event helps Pence show that the state’s economy has been doing well, despite the fallout of the state’s religious freedom law passed in the spring.

The FFA has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1998.