Obama to Rally Patriot Center in Final Push for Healthcare

Barack Obama speaks to students in the Johnson Center in February 2007, before he officially announced his run for the presidency. (Lisa Buzzelli)
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UPDATED 9:41 p.m.

President Barack Obama will hold a rally at the Patriot Center this Friday in support of the health care bill.

According to whitehouse.gov, doors will open at 9 a.m., with the event kicking off at 11:30 a.m. The speech will be open to the public, with no tickets required. No signs or banners are permitted, and attendees are requested not to bring bags or purses.

Mason Press Officer Dan Walsch said that the university was first notified about the event yesterday.

"[The White House] sent a team down here to check what would be available," Walsch said. "As it turns out the Patriot Center is available at that time of day. They were pleased with that. They also looked at the Field House but they felt the Patriot Center would be most appropriate for this particular event."

The Patriot Center is a 10,000 seat arena that generally hosts Mason basketball games, concerts, and other large events.

"The hope is that the place will be filled," Walsch said, adding that no one knew how many people to expect.

Patriot Center General Manager Barry Geisler said that if more people show up Friday than the Patriot Center can hold, the doors will be closed and no one else allowed in.

Parking and Transportation Director Josh Cantor said the event's parking will be handled much like a normal weeknight Patriot Center event.

"There will be a few little wrinkles here and there," Cantor said. "Some of parking lot A near the Patriot Center will be blocked off Thursday night and Friday morning. We'll also be opening up parking garages that we normally don't."

Cantor is not expecting too much trouble with managing the event, as Friday is a relatively light class load for Mason.

"Since it is open to the public and it is first come, first serve- the question is with two and a half days notice, how much word is going to get out there and how much interest is going to be there," Cantor said.

The university is expected to send out an e-mail with more information on the event to all students and faculty soon.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to take a vote on the health care bill late Friday or early Saturday. A recent CNN article stated that the bill's opponents are only 11 votes away from the 216 needed to defeat the bill. At least 27 Democrats have confirmed their intention to vote against the bill.

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Rachael Dickson is the editor-in-chief of Four Years After Final Four, a magazine looking at how George Mason University has changed since the Patriots' famed NCAA basketball run in 2006. Four Years After Final Four will come out in mid-April.