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very tippy-top of the stadium, right next to one of the security policemen. The policeman stated to us from time to time about the GREAT numbers of people who kept entering the stadium. When I asked how many could fit in stadium he told me 6100, so I then asked "what about all those people?" He said they were going to let them in. Some WERE standing, but probably not an extra 6,000 people. Policeman stated that there WAS around 10,000 there. Also said the line was some 7 miles long! Almost unbelievable, but from what I witnessed "first hand" people were STILL entering the stadium almost up to the time Obama spoke.
We drove up from Sarasota and arrived a little before 8:00 AM thinking we would have an easy time parking. But the first parking lot was already FULL. We started to drive to the second designated parking lot when we decided that I would get out and get in line and my daughter would find a place to park. That done, she returned later and we were already behind about 1500 or even 2000 people, according to others there. Gates were to open at 10:00 AM, but it was closer to 11:00 before the line started to move. By the time we got in the stadium those in front of us had filled ALL the upper seats and we found seats at around the fourth row, in the HOT sun. We started looking for better seats further up and by some fluke actually found two on the top row of the left side, the last two seats and the policeman was right beside us. From time to time he kept us updated on ALL that was going on as he got regular status reports. My daughter had her very "fine" camera with her and wanted to go down where Obama was going to enter, but "security" told us it was a "sterile" area so she came back up. Fortunately he "fine" camera had a "fine" zoom attachment.
Since he was to speak at 1:00 PM we had ample time to converse with him and talked about many subjects. As you may know they aren't allowed to specify political affiliation, but it was clear to us that he was a Democrat or Independent who planned to vote for Obama. As the time got closer to his entrance, my daughter decided to stand up on the chair to get some good pictures. He let us know what was going on and told us that they had decided to let everyone come in and not turn anyone away.
As the arrival time got close he told my daughter he would let her know when she should stand up and take her pictures. She stood up again and her told her "not yet" and that he would give her a 30 second warning. They kept clearing people out of the aisles in case there was ANY emergency, but people kept returning and they kept clearing the aisles. We got the heads up and my daughter said she got some VERY GOOD pictures. She plans to send them to me and I will try to post them. The place WAS PACKED. People were standing down on the field and every seat was taken. I can't say how many were standing in the entrance to the stadium because we were up so high. But as I said, they didn't turn ANYONE away and we could see people coming for hours. I saw the end of the line about 10 minutes before he spoke. And from where we were sitting we knew how long it took us to go through the line BEFORE we even got to the security check to enter the stadium.
12,000? Maybe not... but 10,000 could very well be true. Where they squished in I don't know, but the policeman actually made a comment that they estimated the line had been 7 MILES LONG!! The only place that was open was a part of the outfield behind the podium, but there were people out there who could NOT possibly have seen him speaking. But the speakers were extremely loud and music played almost all the time. The crowd was pumped and enthusiastic and some of the "special people" close to the podium kept directing us to do a "wave" and other things from one section to the other. They didn't even have enough signs to pass out because the ran out, but I went down and snagged one. The concession stand ran out of almost EVERYTHING, but I did happen to get two bottles of water and that was all that was left when I got there.
People were EVERYWHERE and it took us a long time to get back out. I can't verify the exact count, only what the policeman told us and he was being fed information all the time. He was really, really nice and we knew he wasn't supposed to be giving us the information, but never the less, without actually saying it out loud, the three of us knew not to tell others what we were hearing.
So that's my take and we had a cat bird's seat near the place he entered. So there should be some good pictures.
Are you complaining??
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