Ladd-Peebles Stadium filled to a size rarely seen outside of Senior Bowl week when a presidential campaign rally drew tens of thousands of people to Mobile on a Friday night in August 2015.
Gates opened at 5 p.m., and by the scheduled 7 p.m. start, the stands and field-level areas around the historic Ann Street stadium were packed with attendees from across the region. Traffic backed up on nearby streets for hours as drivers searched for parking near the venue, a rare sight for a stadium more commonly associated with high school and college football.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson acknowledged the buzz building around the city in the days leading up to the event, telling a radio interviewer that the rally had “got the city all stirred up.” City departments coordinated on traffic control and public safety in the areas surrounding the stadium as the crowd swelled well past initial estimates.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama appeared alongside the candidate during the event, drawing loud applause from the crowd gathered on the stadium turf and in the stands. The evening capped days of anticipation that began when the event was first announced for a much smaller downtown venue before ticket demand forced a move to the stadium.
For Ladd-Peebles, built in 1948 and long a fixture of Mobile’s sports and civic life, the rally marked one of the largest non-athletic gatherings the facility has hosted. Stadium staff and Mobile police worked together to manage the flow of attendees in and out of the venue, an operation more typical of Senior Bowl or high school playoff crowds than a weeknight campaign stop.
Local business owners near the stadium reported a noticeable bump in evening traffic as attendees arrived early and lingered afterward. For a city accustomed to hosting Mardi Gras crowds and football weekends, the scale of the rally still stood out, with many longtime residents saying they could not recall another political event drawing a comparable turnout to a Mobile venue.
The event added Mobile to a short list of Alabama cities to host a major-party presidential contender that election cycle, a distinction city leaders noted as a reflection of the region’s growing visibility on the national stage.