According to several local news sources, including Crain's Chicago Business and the Chicago Sun-Times, the Obama-Biden campaign sent out a memo on Tuesday confirming that an election night celebration will take place in Grant Park—assuming, of course, the campaign will have reason to celebrate.
Though the memo stated that festivities will occur in Hutchinson Field, which occupies the park's southern end, event specifics are scarce at this point. One detail the press did grasp, however: Media coverage of the celebration will come with a hefty fee.
According to the Crain's report, press credentials will run anywhere from $715 to $1,815, depending on whether a media outlet requires electrical and phone lines and whether it requests indoor or outdoor seating. Though there will be a general media area with free admission, the memo warns that it is "outdoors, unassigned, and may have obstructed views...[there will be] standing room only."
Another caveat: Access to the general area does not mean access to top campaign officials, who will only speak to media outlets that have paid a $935 fee to enter a special press file tent. (The $935 will be on top of the aforementioned credential fees.) A spokesman for the Obama campaign told Crain's that the press file tent will occupy the center of the general media area, however, so there's a chance that free-admission reporters will be able to stop senior aides on their way to the tent.
