Democrats to open Obama nomination speech to public

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination next month at a Denver football stadium that can hold more than 75,000 people after the political party decided to open the event to a broader audience, officials said on Monday.

"Senator Obama's candidacy has generated an enormous amount of excitement and interest," Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. "By bringing the last night of the convention out to the people, we will be able to showcase Barack Obama's positive, people-centered vision for our country in a big way."

The Democratic Party holds its nominating convention August 25-28 in Denver, with daytime meetings and councils held at the Colorado Convention Center and televised evening events at the Pepsi Center sports arena, which can hold up to 20,000 people.

The party decided to hold the final evening's televised events, including Obama's nomination acceptance speech, at INVESCO Field at Mile High, the 76,125-seat stadium that is home to the Denver Broncos football team.

The additional space enables the party to open the event to a broader audience. Attendance at nominating conventions in generally limited to delegates, elected officials and volunteers, a convention spokeswoman said.

"This change in the convention program will allow thousands of first-time participants a chance to take part," said convention co-chair Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas. "I can't think of a better convention finale for our nominee, who has made reaching out to voters a hallmark of his campaign."

The procedure for obtaining credentials to attend the last night of the convention was not immediately clear. The committee in charge of the convention said in a statement that a block of seats would be reserved for Colorado residents, but it did not mention seats for people from outside the state.

A spokeswoman for the committee said details on how people could obtain seats would be worked out in the coming weeks.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)