By Dan McCue

CHARLESTON -- It's likely the biggest thing to come to The Citadel’s McAlister Field House since air conditioning was installed in the fabled gymnasium in the mid-1990s.

Tonight the eight Democratic candidates for president will converge on the campus off Moultrie Street for what one CNN executive described as the Internet's "first seat at the table in terms of determining who the next president of the United States might be.”

In all, some 2,700 tickets have been distributed for tonight's debate, the live broadcast of which begins at 7 p.m. That's more than three times as many as were distributed for the Democratic debate three months ago at S.C. State University in Orangeburg.

As has been highly publicized, rather than simply answer questions posed by moderator Anderson Cooper, the candidates will respond to questions submitted by video via YouTube.

By Sunday nearly 2,000 videos were submitted. Of those, only about 30 will be chosen and aired tonight.

"I think it's fitting that a city so full of tradition is where tradition is broken," said David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and the executive producer of its campaign coverage. "Whether it works or not, we'll know after the debate."

While he expressed confidence about the success of the format, which CNN will also use for its Republican debate being held in Florida in September, Bohrman also admitted, "You never can tell until you actually do it. This debate is truly unique."

That sentiment was echoed by Anderson Cooper, who was on the debate set Sunday for an extended rehearsal.

"Frankly, I was kind of concerned when I first heard about the debate. I didn't really see how it would work, and then once I started watching the videos, all my concerns really sort of fell away because you could see that this format would really provide a new dimension to a debate,” he said.

"It's not about members of the media posing a predictable set of questions. It's about the public, in a sense inviting the candidates into their lives momentarily and asking questions that are personally important to them and require a personal response."

That's what makes this debate interesting, Bohrman said.

"People have real questions, want real answers and the candidate who reverts to his or her talking points to address those questions is going to be dead in the water,” he said. “It'll be really interesting, after the fact, to learn how the campaigns prepared for the debate. Did they try to wade through all the videos over time, or did they just sample for a flavor of them, or did they do something else entirely?"

Few questions submitted through YouTube addressed the war in Iraq, and many were about economics and what Bohrman described as "pocketbook issues," he said.

In addition to debate spectators, more than 400 reporters are expected to be in the city today, as well as 60 to 70 CNN staffers, and large contingents affiliated with each campaign.

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said while playing host to the debate has been a big logistical challenge, expenses for overtime and the like were well within what was budgeted for those items this year.

"You always build a cushion into your budget because you anticipate that over the course of the year, something unforeseen at budget time will need to be addressed," he said.

And in fact, some things the city had initially planned, including a proposed Sunday night reception for visiting reporters at the Riviera Theater downtown, did not materialize.

"You know, you also can't interpret expenditures until you look at them against the backdrop of what they achieve. In other words, they are an investment in our future,” Riley said.

"This debate will be very important to these candidates on their journey to becoming president. In the future, when the city has an issue or a project, their memories of their time here and of how the debate helped position them going forward, will be a great benefit for us."