KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Could the next Republican National Convention be held in Kansas City?

It is possible, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told reporters after speaking there on Saturday.

“It is centrally located. I like the central time zone, myself,” said Priebus, a former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Kansas City is reportedly competing with Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada, in the GOP’s search for a location. Still, Priebus added, the decision is nowhere close to being made.

“The convention decision is not going to come until next year,” he said. “Cities that are interested will be getting some information on bidding on the convention within the next few months.”

Priebus was in Kansas City to address a few hundred Republicans gathered in Kansas City over the weekend for the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference, an organization made up of eight states in the region. In his remarks, Priebus repeated his call for an earlier national convention coupled with a shorter primary selection process.

“We’re not going to have a year round, slicing and dicing festival among our candidates. We’re going to shorten the primary calendar,” he said.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican who ran for president in 2012, said he agreed with Priebus’s plan to move up the primary and convention calendar.

“I think we tremendously handicap a nominee by starting so late,” Santorum told reporters earlier in the day.