2012 Democratic National Convention - Convention Activities

Convention Activities

All three dates of the convention were held at the Time Warner Cable Arena. The last night, Thursday, September 6, was originally scheduled to be held at the 72,000-seat Bank of America Stadium, where presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama was to deliver his acceptance speech. After Convention officials insisted that they would hold Thursday's activities at the stadium "rain or shine", the venue was moved to the 20,000 seat indoor arena “... due to thunderstorm threat.” Some in the media questioned the move, wondering whether it was motivated more by an inability to fill the 70,000 seat stadium and the possibility that empty seats would show a lack of enthusiasm. The risk of severe weather wasn't high; Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC-TV chief meteorologist Brad Panovich tweeted that the "evere threat is almost zero Thursday night & chance of rain is 20%", adding, "It’s a simple question...if you had a Panthers game, concert or soccer match with a 20% chance of storms would you cancel 24 hrs prior?" The date of Obama's acceptance speech caused the National Football League to move the Kickoff game, normally on a Thursday, to Wednesday, September 5, to avoid a conflict. This in turn caused the DNC to move Joe Biden's vice presidential acceptance speech, normally held the day before the presidential acceptance speech, to Thursday, before Obama's speech, to avoid a conflict with the NFL game.