I'm sure everyone on Daily Kos is aware of the change of venue for Obama's acceptance speech in Denver: Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. I personally have no doubts that they will be able to find 75,000 people to jampack the stadium for a raucous good time. I've been there for a couple college football games (Colorado State vs. U of Colorado...and by the way, go Rams!) and it can be deafening in there.
But let's look at the history of Invesco. A small sales tax was used to fund the building of that stadium. And the vote for the tax came after two Denver Bronco superbowl wins. (If I remember correctly). John Elway happened to donate to Rudy Guiliani.
(FYI, my source for Elway's donation was from Athlon Sports Pro Football 2008 preview magazine. They had a list of NFLers and who they donated to. Former Dallas great Emmitt Smith is an Obama guy)
The former Mile High Stadium was a ramshackle makeshift field that started out as a small minor league basefield field and was adopted by the Denver Broncos when they started the AFL in 1960. The old stadium was renovated and added onto in bits, so it was a pretty creaky structure that was due for replacement in the late 90s. There is no doubt that the success of the Broncos and John Elway's solid quarterbacking that helped the stadium tax funding go through. Two Superbowl victories in two years paves the way for that sort of project.
John Elway is also a republican and has donated to the party for years, including Rudy Guiliani. It is safe to say he's probably not going to pull the lever for Obama come November.
Nothing amuses me more than thinking that the stadium Elway helped build is going to host the biggest Democratic event in many, many years.
And if you're a Democratic Raiders fan, this has to be double the fun.