Chicago Boat Show, a McCormick Place staple, will move to Rosemont

The annual Chicago Boat Show will be moving next year out of its longtime home at McCormick Place, organizers announced Thursday.

After 92 years, Chicago’s largest boat show will debut at Rosemont’s Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on Jan. 8-12, 2025.

The decision came after multiple conversations with exhibitors, said Darren Envall, vice president at National Marine Manufacturers Association, organizer of the event. Market analysis and boater feedback were also factors for the shift to Rosemont, which is closer to suburban boaters.

“The more centralized Rosemont ... location positions the show for growth, accommodating the expanding boating population across a broader Chicagoland region,” Envall said in a news release.

Next year’s show is expected to feature more fishing boats, which cater to suburban and recreational boaters, a large customer base. The average boater’s income is $100,000 or less, Envall told the Sun-Times, so the convention will display more entry-level boats. However, the event will still showcase million-dollar yachts, he added.

Outdoor industries, including boating, became more popular during the pandemic when people could enjoy being outside while remaining socially distant from others, Envall said.

In 2022, the number of outdoor recreation participants grew 2.3% to a record high of more than 168 million people, or 55% of the U.S. population ages 6 and older, according to a 2023 report from the Outdoor Industry Association.

January’s Chicago Boat Show was expected to attract about 40,000 visitors from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and southern Wisconsin. Exhibitors displayed some 400 fishing boats, deck boats, ski boats, wake boats, pontoons and yachts ranging in price from less than $10,000 to more than $1 million. But only 18,169 visitors turned out, said Envall, citing bad weather.

He expects next year’s show to have 40,000 attendees, along with exhibitors from multiple states in the region.

In the last decade, the show has evolved from boats, recreational vehicles and sailing vessels to strictly a boat exhibition, which Envall said was also a deciding factor for moving to Rosemont.

Other outdoor industry events staging shows at the DES Convention Center include the Chicago RV & Camping Show, the Chicago Golf Show and the Travel & Adventure Show.

The DES Convention Center has 840,000 square feet of exhibition space, compared to 2.6 million square feet of exhibit halls at McCormick Place.