Capaha Park will be the site of Friday's visit to Cape Girardeau by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

The event will be open to the public, but tickets will be required for admittance, said Rachel Fayman, press secretary for the Democratic presidential campaign in Missouri. The free tickets will be distributed throughout the area by campaign workers next week.

Fayman said the campaign "chose Capaha Park because it is an open environment and also so the people can be close to the candidates." She said, "Capaha Park will be a friendly environment in which to speak."

Fayman said security, as always during presidential appearances, will be tight.

The president and vice president will arrive at the park sometime Friday afternoon. A precise time has not been announced.

An advance team from the national campaign office is already in Cape Girardeau laying groundwork and finalizing details of the visit by the president and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the vice president and his wife, Tipper Gore.

Fayman said tickets to the event will be distributed as soon as they are printed. Ticket distribution, she said, will take place at school parking lots, shopping center parking lots and other public places where there are a number of people.

The Capaha Park rally will be the first for Clinton and Gore following the Democratic National Convention, which runs Monday through Thursday in Chicago.

The president and his entourage will fly into Cape Girardeau Regional Airport on Air Force One Friday. At the airport they will board buses that will take them to Capaha Park.

Following the rally in Cape Girardeau, the group will continue its bus tour, stopping in Paducah, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn., later in the day. Fayman said the group may also make impromptu stops along the way.