Concession Speech Podium Set Up For De Blasio At Park Slope YMCA

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Someone in Brooklyn is pretty excited that Mayor Bill de Blasio is considering dropping out of the presidential race.

A day after the mayor said it would be "tough" to keep going with his White House bid if he doesn't qualify for the next debate, a concession speech venue was set up for him outside his gym at the YMCA in Park Slope.

The concession stand, complete with a poster that reads "I'm Dropping Out," was spotted outside the Prospect Park YMCA on 9th Street around noon on Thursday. De Blasio is known to stop by the gym — when he's not traveling the country for campaign events, that is — a few times a week.

Patch could not immediately determine who the culprit of the concession speech set-up was, but a lot of Brooklynites online wondered if it was the same person who put up flyers urging the mayor not to run for president at the YMCA earlier this year.

That person even has an anti-presidential campaign website set up called "de Blasio for Resident."

The latest stunt comes a day after de Blasio said at an unrelated news conference that he might drop out if he misses the cut for the Democratic National Committee's fourth debate, set for Oct. 15 in Ohio.

"I'm gonna go and try and get into the October debates, and if I can I think that's a good reason to keep going forward," de Blasio said. "And if I can't, I think it's really tough to conceive of continuing."

The mayor missed the cut for the DNC's third debate on Sept. 12. The 10 candidates who will take the stage in Houston got campaign contributions from at least 130,000 donors and reached 2 percent support in at least four qualifying polls.

De Blasio has until Oct. 1 to meet those criteria and qualify for the next face-off. As of last week he had not hit 2 percent in any qualifying polls, and he said two weeks ago that he was "not halfway" to the donor threshold.

Missing the September debate led New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to leave the crowded Democratic field. But de Blasio said he's still hoping for a viral moment to catapult his candidacy out of obscurity.

"People go from unheard of to totally famous in 72 hours in America now," he said. "So a candidate like me who's not that well known yet — ask me in 72 hours, right?"

Patch reporter Noah Manskar contributed to this report.