FEDERAL AND 14TH-- Andy DeMattee sat this afternoon on a milk crate in front of the liquor store he's owned for the last 30 years watching throngs of people funnel into Invesco Field.

With the stadium's giant big screen visible from his Avondale Liquors, the 80-year-old man was sure that he'd watch history be made tonight at during Sen. Barack Obama's presidential-nomination acceptance speech.

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that," he said. "You can't delay progress."

But the man sitting to his left didn't share DeMattee's views.

"Absolutely not," said Larry Richter, 56. "I'm not a believer in the candidate. If this was a Republican candidate, I'd be a bit more into it."

Ah, politics.

Wearing a sport coat and tie, Richter was a contracted driver who had already dropped off his passengers for the evening. He said he was going to wait at the liquor store until his services were needed again after the Invesco speeches wrapped up.

The men weren't the only ones waiting for the night's festivities. The neighborhoods south of Invesco were buzzing with politics.

"No, it's not the same as a Broncos game, by any means," said Emily Parkey, an organizer with Rights for All People, an immigration advocacy group on 14th Avenue.

It was common to see people stopping to gawk at the crowds.

Others poked their heads out of doors of offices buildings or apartments to see the throngs of people making their way into the stadium or see what was on Invesco's big screen.

Many were charging for parking.

"Too bad we didn't get up on that earlier," Parkey said. It would have been a good fundraiser."