Trump moves Alabama rally to football stadium

Donald Trump is going Southern style with his latest rally.

The businessman and Republican front-runner says he hopes to draw more than 30,000 people to a Friday night event in Mobile, Ala., that has been moved from a hotel ballroom to a local football stadium.

"They have actually had to take the football stadium," Trump said on Fox Business News. "So you know, there is something going on out there. There is a movement."

Ladd-Peebles Stadium, a 67-year-old grand dame of Southern football, lists its capacity at 40,600 with room for more on the field. (The stadium is also the answer to a great college football trivia question: Where did Bear Bryant coach his first game at Alabama?)

This could be the most crowded event of the political season so far; Bernie Sanders drew 28,000 to a recent Democratic event in Portland, Ore.

Trump is the latest Republican candidate to stump in Alabama and other Southern states that are drawing more attention than usual this cycle.

While South Carolina will again host the first Southern primary in February, a number of other Southern states are planning host primaries on a single day, March 1.

The "SEC primary" — named for the Southeastern Conference of college sports that includes Alabama and Auburn — is expected to include Texas, Georgia and Tennessee as well as Alabama.