They gave away tickets from tampa, orlando, melbourne, gainesville, all over the place. 16,000 to 18,000 picked up tickets at the Villages on Friday. Below is all the places tickets were passed out, all over central Florida. The FIRE CHIEF estimated 70,000. I don’t know. I was supposed to go, my sis was having a pain day.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Calendar/Detail.aspx?guid=23cf12a6-9eb9-42b0-8a73-646fe35e8acd
I went to the Bush rally at the Villages in 2004. The place where these events are held is a huge field and open area. Part of it is fenced off, and that was the part for which you needed a ticket, 20,000 of which were distributed and used. They set up jumbotrons around the fence, so that people who don’t manage to get in - in this case, some 50,000 people, evidently - can see what’s going on.
The attendees were not only Villages residents by any means. The place is centrally located and people come from Tampa, Orlando, the Gulf towns and Gainesville and other north central Florida locations.