As Cleveland celebrates the end of the city’s 52-year drought in winning a major professional sports championship, the organizers of the Republican National Convention face a quick timeline to get the basketball arena converted for the event, which will run from July 18-21.  

So they were working before and after a sold-out watch party for Sunday night’s game seven, as shown in a new time-lapse video from the convention organizers.  

It won’t just be superficial changes and the rigging of 125,000 balloons that will be needed to prepare the home of the newly-crowned NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.  

The convention committee says that five new steel beams must be installed at Quicken Loans Arena to get the facility ready to hold a 140,000-pound lighting grid with some 836 light fixtures.  

A convention source told Roll Call that among the temporary renovations is the build-out of a floor on top of the whirlpool room. Locker rooms, sports media facilities, and other nooks and crannies will be repurposed to help provide space for the attendees.  

The success of the Cavaliers left the GOP convention planners with a bit of an unwanted time crunch , but they seem to be taking it in stride. A tipster said some of them were among the attendees of Sunday night’s game watch.  

The city of Cleveland will celebrate LeBron James and his championship-winning teammates and coaches during a parade on Wednesday.  

Contact Lesniewski at NielsLesniewski@cqrollcall.com and follow him on Twitter @nielslesniewski
.

Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.