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Mayor says city leaders prepared as well as they could for DNC

City leaders have long said what's about to happen this week is a game-changer for Charlotte.

The city beat out St. Louis, Cleveland and Minneapolis.

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has been part of the host committee, which has had to raise the $37 million to put on the DNC.

He told Eyewitness News on Sunday night that he's spent half of his time focused on being the mayor of Charlotte and the other half on the convention, and he's eager for it to begin.

“I feel like we've prepared ourselves as well as we could,” Foxx said. “Obviously you can't predict and anticipate every single thing that happens. There will be slip-ups here and there. But hopefully on the whole, we'll do a great job of hosting this convention.”

The convention is expected to bring as much as $200 million in local economic impact.

Foxx will take the stage Tuesday night and use it to push Charlotte in front of a national audience.

“I also think we need to talk about, as a community, about who we are, what we've been through and how we've met challenges in the past, and how we've worked together to solve those challenges,” Foxx said.

Thousands of members of the media have already arrived for the week, and some are here for the first time.

Terry Moran, anchor of ABC's Nightline, is in Charlotte to cover the DNC.

He said it's an interesting time in politics, making it even more likely that people will pay close attention to what's happening here this week.

“Right now, all the polls show people are very iffy on this.  I think the most important thing in Charlotte is for the Democrats to offer something positive,” Moran said.

It’s a message from the inside of the arena and from the heart of uptown Charlotte reaching an entire country.