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Posted: Monday, 07 July 2008 11:33AM
Barack Obama to Accept Nomination at Football Stadium
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High, a 76,000-seat stadium home to the Denver Broncos, the Democratic National Committee announced Monday.
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The party's convention will be held Aug. 25-28 at Denver's Pepsi Center, which holds up to 21,000 people. Construction for the convention was beginning at the Pepsi Center Monday amid concerns about lagging fundraising and cost overruns.
Last month, the convention's host committee reported it was nearly $12 million short of the $40.6 million it had pledged to raise for the effort. Host committee members spoke openly of needing the Obama campaign's help to close the gap.
The decision to move Obama's acceptance speech to the giant football stadium was expected to boost fundraising, convention organizer Jenny Backus said.
``Lots of conventions have had no connection to their host cities, but this one is really going to take advantage of being in a state that's going to be an important general election battleground,'' Backus said. ``And what better way to kick off the fall campaign and get thousands of supporters and grassroots organizers all in one place to get fired up.''
Obama is known for drawing huge crowds to many of his speeches. In May, a record 75,000 jammed into a riverside park in Portland, Ore., to hear him speak shortly before that state's primary.
Obama is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday, Aug. 28, the fourth and final night of the convention. It coincides with the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s ``I Have a Dream'' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
The Illinois senator is running to be the first black president.
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