Today, officials with the Democratic National Convention Committee announced details for members of the public who want to see Barack Obama’s nomination-acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Those interested in attending can apply at or at any Obama campaign office. Applicants also can call 888-468-7404 (TTY: 720-362-2208).
At a 2:30 p.m. press conference at the stadium, DNCC chief executive Leah Daughtry said that half of the more than 60,000 seats available to the public at Invesco would go to Coloradans. In total, two-thirds will go to residents of the Rocky Mountain west, as part of a strategy to woo voters in key swing states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.
“Start making your calls immediately,” said Federico Peña, a co-chairman of the Obama campaign, adding that the tickets would be awarded first-come-first-served.
The application process ends Tuesday, when selections for the so-called “community credentials” are to begin.
Daughtry said applicants would be called and screened to ensure the person actually had serious plans to attend.
Obama switched venues from the Pepsi Center, where the opening nights of the convention are to be held, to Invesco last month. Then, the campaign said Obama wanted to open up more than 60,000 seats to his grassroots supporters.
As first reported by The Denver Post last month, the campaign wants to use the ticketing process as a massive recruitment tool meant to bring in supporters from all 50 states and energize them to carry the campaign into the final days of the general election.
Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, told The Post: “We’re going to ask those 80,000 people in that stadium to march out of there and go with very specific instructions and goals to register millions of new voters.”
By seating the 6,000 delegates down on the field normally defended by the Denver Broncos and by keeping the number of journalists, technicians and VIPs at the same level as those attending the Pepsi Center events earlier in the week, the campaign could maximize the number of tickets available to the public, Hildebrand said.
As a battleground state hosting the convention, Colorado will have access to the largest percentage of public tickets.
Because the campaign wants to fill the stadium, the application process becomes in and of itself a recruiting tool.
Those who want a seat will have to demonstrate their ability to attend. They also will be encouraged to sign on to the campaign as volunteers.
Meanwhile, the majority of the Denver area’s 42,000 hotel rooms are booked.
Richard Scharf, president of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said last month that a two-page list of hotels with vacancies may contain “hundreds, up to a couple thousand,” vacancies.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
