Obviously.
Via Daily Mail:
Democrats have announced that President Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will move from the vast Bank of America stadium to the much-smaller Time Warner indoor arena.
While organisers blamed weather forecasts of lightning, the switch means that Obama has avoided the possibility of having to accept his party’s nomination before a partially-empty stadium. Just hours earlier, officials had been insisting the speech would go ahead in the stadium ‘rain or shine’.
‘We have been monitoring weather forecasts closely and several reports predict thunderstorms in the area, therefore we have decided to move Thursday’s proceedings to Time Warner Cable Arena to ensure the safety and security of our delegates and convention guests,’ said convention chief Steve Kerrigan.
But convention sources exclusively told the MailOnline on Tuesday that the real reason behind the switch was fears within the Obama campaign that there would be large numbers of empty seats in the 74,000-seater stadium. The Time Warner arena has a capacity of just over 20,000.
‘It looks like a done deal to me,’ a convention worker told MailOnline on Tuesday. ‘The decision’s apparently been taken and it’s just a matter of spinning it as being forced on us by the weather.’ As the source was speaking, Democrats were saying publicly the event would go ahead as planned.
Update:
CNN reports the Obama campaign gave away only 65,000 tickets to Bank of America Stadium, capacity is over 74,000.