Cheerleading and check-cutting for the 2016 DNC

THE FIVE-CITY competition to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention now shifts from cheerleading to check-cutting.

Philadelphia should know in about two months whether the city wins the convention, a group of local legal, labor and corporate leaders were told yesterday in a closed-door meeting at City Hall.

The job between now and then is to raise enough cash to look viable to the Democratic National Committee.

Sources familiar with the meeting said a goal of raising $5 million by mid-January was set.

Philadelphia hosted DNC officials in August in a two-day series of rah-rah events showcasing enthusiasm and capacity. That was followed by a detailed plan submitted to the DNC.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, Mayor Nutter, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz sought pledges of financial support from local legal, corporate and labor leaders at yesterday's meeting.

Rendell later said the city put the price tag for the event at $84 million in the DNC plan.

"That's what we figure we need to run a first-class convention," he said. "We also gave them a detailed financial plan that showed we could raise $100 million if we had to. Now we've got to go about turning that into reality."

Rendell pledged $25,000 of his own at the meeting.

Murat Guzel, a Bethlehem businessman who said he runs a wholesale organic-food supplier and a construction company, pledged $100,000.

Guzel, originally from Turkey, was a 2012 DNC delegate for President Obama.

The DNC is expected to choose from five cities in January.

The competition also includes Brooklyn, N.Y.; Phoenix; Birmingham, Ala.; and Columbus, Ohio.

Hitting the city's financial goals between now and then may be a deciding factor in whether the DNC comes to town.

"If we can get a decent sum in the escrow account, I think we'll get it," Rendell said.

A nonprofit raised $66 million to host the 2000 Republican National Convention here, with $39 million coming from taxpayers in the region. The city issued a report after that convention, saying it had a $345 million impact on the region's economy.

The federal government now pays more for some expenses and less for others at conventions. The government has put up $50 million for security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Obama in April signed into law legislation that stripped $18 million in federal funding from the Democratic and Republican conventions.