2012 Democratic National Convention shortened from four days to three, Obama to accept nomination in larger venue

This morn­ing, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee Chair­woman Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz made two impor­tant logis­ti­cal announce­ments about the forty-sev­enth qua­dren­ni­al meet­ing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, sched­uled to take place in Char­lotte, North Car­oli­na, dur­ing the first full week of September.

At a media event in the City of Trees, Schultz revealed that the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion will run for three days instead of four, and also unveiled the par­ty’s plans for the con­ven­tion’s final night, when Barack Oba­ma is expect­ed to be renom­i­nat­ed by the par­ty as its can­di­date for president.

To make the con­ven­tion more open and acces­si­ble, the orga­niz­ing com­mit­tee (with the bless­ing of the Oba­ma cam­paign) has decid­ed to hold the final night of the 2012 Con­ven­tion at the unfor­tu­nate­ly-named Bank of Amer­i­ca Sta­di­um, which, like Den­ver’s Invesco Field, is a venue designed for football.

Read­ers who remem­ber the 2008 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion will recall that Invesco Field host­ed the final night of the 2008 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma deliv­ered his accep­tance speech there before a record crowd of 84,000; NPI cov­ered the event live here on The Advocate.

Bank of Amer­i­ca Sta­di­um — orig­i­nal­ly known as Car­oli­nas Sta­di­um — has a capac­i­ty of 73,778 seats. It is much roomi­er than Time Warn­er Cable Are­na, where the oth­er two nights of the con­ven­tion will he held.

“We want this con­ven­tion to be about more than just the pageantry and speech­es you see on tele­vi­sion. This is about engag­ing Amer­i­cans in a mean­ing­ful way,” said DNC Chair Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz in a news release explain­ing the decision.

Pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nat­ing con­ven­tions usu­al­ly begin on a Mon­day and run for four days. But the Mon­day of con­ven­tion week this year is Labor Day. Rather than sched­ule a night of speech­es, the par­ty has decid­ed to hold Labor Day cel­e­bra­tions at Char­lot­te’s Motor Speed­way. A spe­cif­ic sched­ule of events has yet to be announced, but will no doubt be forth­com­ing before too long, along with the themes and the speak­ing line­ups for the three fol­low­ing days.

The Repub­li­can Par­ty will be hold­ing its 2012 con­ven­tion the week before in Tam­pa, Flori­da. Both Flori­da and North Car­oli­na are expect­ed to be fierce­ly con­test­ed bat­tle­ground states in this year’s pres­i­den­tial election.