What things can CU do to raise its football prestige?

SINKRATZ said:

I’d rather set a goal of selling out the current stadium before even thinking about expanding it.

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You have to look at what is the best way to maximize revenue, not maximize attendance.

If the stadium were to be expanded what would have to happen in order to regularly fill it. Expensive promotions and cheaper tickets would be big parts but both are self-defeating. The promotion is costly and cheaper tickets devalues the other seats you are selling.

Better situation is to have your current stadium at or near capacity, at least for multiple key games each year. Then you don't have to discount prices.

More importantly you create a situation where people believe that to make sure they get tickets for the games they want they might as well buy season tickets. Along with those season tickets for better seating you have additional rights fees or seat donations.

My plan would be to increase the number and quality of the premium seating and increase the average revenue per seat, not just the number sold.

I like the boulder creek tailgate idea. Priorities have to be: WiFi, sound, new video boards, Balch/pressbox. Balch and concessions is such a **** show currently. It shouldn’t take the entire halftime+ to grab a hot dog and a beer.

89BUFF89 said:

I like the boulder creek tailgate idea. Priorities have to be: WiFi, sound, new video boards, Balch/pressbox. Balch and concessions is such a **** show currently. It shouldn’t take the entire halftime+ to grab a hot dog and a beer.

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They got new video boards just a couple years ago.

SINKRATZ said:

I’d rather set a goal of selling out the current stadium before even thinking about expanding it.

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I don’t think you are paying attention. Nobody is arguing that point.

Not Sure said:

I don’t think you are paying attention. Nobody is arguing that point.

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There’s people here advocating for expanding the stadium to 65k in order to help “raise the prestige” of CU football per the thread title. It was mentioned in the OP.

SINKRATZ said:

There’s people here advocating for expanding the stadium to 65k in order to help “raise the prestige” of CU football per the thread title. It was mentioned in the OP.

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Only once there is adequate demand to do so. Nobody is saying we should increase capacity prior to then.

Our prestige has nothing to do with capacity, concessions or parking.

Win.

When are they going to relocate family housing from near the CU practice fields to the South Campus? Once that happens, we will be able to raze those family housing units and turn them into new athletic facilities. Tailgating needs to be considered as well and that wouldn't be limited to just football games but the other sports and maybe that would be enough to convince Rick George and the higher ups that men's lacrosse needs to become a varsity sport at CU. Ditto for men's soccer.

I once stayed at a hotel (seems like it's no longer there on Google Maps) across 36 from the campus and it was an easy walk to the game and the hotel manager allowed me to park my vehicle there even after checking out so I agree about the need for more hotels nearby.

A more extensive renovation of Folsom Field is inevitable given its age and the last expansion before the east suites occurred in like 1967 according to Wikipedia. I believe the field needs to be widened so that lacrosse and soccer can be played at Folsom Field. The days of Folsom Field being a football only facility needs to be in the rear view mirror and our groundskeepers have proved that they are up to the task of taking care of that grass field. If the grass surface has to go, I don't care. Premium seating on the west side needs to happen and it's inevitable that fold back seating will replace those aluminium bleachers. The press box building on the west side needs to go and be replaced by new enclosed premium seating. The ability to add an upper deck on the west side needs to be part of the consideration and when that happens, the lower east side bowl seating (non-student) can be converted to premium seating. The northwest corner needs to be bowled in as well.

More $$$ is the main goal not seating numbers.

Not Sure said:

Only once there is adequate demand to do so. Nobody is saying we should increase capacity prior to then.

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Again, what makes you think that’s ever going to happen?

College Football Attendance on the Decline

1) CU rarely sells out Folsom - even when the program was at its height, there were tickets available.
2) Only 4 Pac12 programs averaged even 50,000 tickets sold this year and CU was not one of them.
3) College football attendance is down across the country with average attendance dropping in 7 of the last 8 seasons.
4) Despite favorable demographic shifts, the Pac12 had its lowest average attendance since 1982!!

The PAC-12 posted its lowest average attendance since 1982, and in 2018, its conference members had a 3,013 average decline – the lowest of any conference since 2014.
The Big Ten reached its lowest average attendance in 25 years (65,365). Both the Conference USA and the Mountain West reached the lowest averages in their respective histories. Both conferences launched in the mid-to-late 1990s.
The SEC suffered its lowest average attendance since 2004. The conference’s 1.2% decline from 2017 resulted in an average of 74,185 people in attendance.

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The BIG 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby spoke on the issue recently:
“We’re competing more than ever before against the television product we helped create,” he said. “There’s no line at the restroom, the beer is always cold [at home]. You don’t have to invest 8 hours going to the stadium. There’s no parking fees. You don’t have to pay seat license, and on your 70-inch TV it’s a pretty good viewing experience.”

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So tell me how we become the unicorn? How do we generate demand increase that almost no one else in college football is experiencing?

I would like to see more targeted marketing in the Denver area. Add a few CU Football billboards around the city with Tucker's face plastered on it. Try HARD to partner with the Broncos if possible....it would be cool to run Ralphie at a Broncos game even if pre-season.

Also, in Texas is was very common for UT to do Corporate events with Bevo on-site. I would like to see Ralphie used similarly. Its a great way to get exposed to some people with disposable income in Denver.

SINKRATZ said:

Again, what makes you think that’s ever going to happen?

College Football Attendance on the Decline

1) CU rarely sells out Folsom - even when the program was at its height, there were tickets available.
2) Only 4 Pac12 programs averaged even 50,000 tickets sold this year and CU was not one of them.
3) College football attendance is down across the country with average attendance dropping in 7 of the last 8 seasons.
4) Despite favorable demographic shifts, the Pac12 had its lowest average attendance since 1982!!

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What part of “if the demand is there, we should expand” is a problem for you? What difference does it make what’s happening elsewhere?

Not Sure said:

What part of “if the demand is there, we should expand” is a problem for you? What difference does it make what’s happening elsewhere?

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I posted too quickly - see the edits and quotes. Tell me how we generate gains in new demand that no one else is getting. Trends across all of college football and our conference absolutely do matter.

Win.

SINKRATZ said:

I posted too quickly - see the edits and quotes. Tell me how we generate gains in new demand that no one else is getting. Trends across all of college football and our conference absolutely do matter.

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There are several suggestions in this thread. Improve game day experience, increase assistant salaries, make access to the stadium and tailgating better, improve concessions and bathroom facilities, better student engagement, better marketing. All those things lead to increased attendance.

CU needs to engage and encourage the tailgating culture. Developing the creek parking lot to be a tailgating hotspot needs to be done. Put in some permanent restroom facilities (will primarily be used by the field sports that use that area). Provide limited pull through RV/Trailer utility hooks ups. Increase vehicle access options to the area. Increase walking options to the stadium and at least one route that is handicap accessible.

CU needs to hype the spring game, and they should look to Utah on how to do it through tailgating. Partner the game with a real beer festival and I think it could easily become a must attend event every spring.

Not Sure said:

There are several suggestions in this thread. Improve game day experience, increase assistant salaries, make access to the stadium and tailgating better, improve concessions and bathroom facilities, better student engagement, better marketing. All those things lead to increased attendance.

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That’s all great stuff to do and will hopefully help you fill our current stadium even when the team isn’t competing for conference championships (I’m not a fan of building capacity based on demand in the outlier years of team performance), but it’s not going to get you to 60k+.

I’m all for a complete re-do of Balch because it’s disgusting and such a prime opportunity to make a special experience there. Start with that and see what happens. 65k is a pipe dream right now.

In order to increase the national "prestige" of the program, they must win consistently. Full stop. Other things that are needed to be taken seriously by recruits are state of the art training facilities, which CU has. A massive, NFL/SEC/BIG sized stadium probably helps create a "big time" perception for recruits, but that's just not a reality for most Pac 12 programs.

The increased stadium capacity, Balch renovation, new ****ters, upgrading concessions, etc create a much better game day experience, but aren't things that increase the program's prestige.

These are two different conversations.

Not Sure said:

What part of “if the demand is there, we should expand” is a problem for you? What difference does it make what’s happening elsewhere?

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There is no demand there, why do you have a problem seeing this. Never has never will, LA basin has over 12 million people please tell us why they don't sell out the stadiums there. Thinking CU can expand to 65,000 is so stupid. Some outstanding ideas for what is realistic have been talked about in this thread, just not the expansion.

68buffs said:

There is no demand there, why do you have a problem seeing this. Never has never will, LA basin has over 12 million people please tell us why they don't sell out the stadiums there. Thinking CU can expand to 65,000 is so stupid. Some outstanding ideas for what is realistic have been talked about in this thread, just not the expansion.

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A bit of a difference. People in California don't care about football. The colleges never sell out. The NFL has struggled to hang on their despite their best efforts.

Colorado, Denver in particular, loves football. The Broncos have been sold out for I don't even know how long. The wait list is like 20 years long. The thing CU needs to do better at, is convince the people around the state to care about the Buffs as much as they care about the Broncos. That is the struggle they have been fighting forever. It is a different problem than the one they face in California, and honestly one that some real sustained success could solve.

Guys - Nick freaking Saban had to resort to calling out Bama students so that they’d show up to all of their home games. The struggle is real for NCAAF attendance.

manhattanbuf said:

Guys - Nick freaking Saban had to resort to calling out Bama students so that they’d show up to all of their home games. The struggle is real for NCAAF attendance.

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Yeah, but Saban's comments were directly about games against FCS opponents in which they go up by 40 points in the first half. I wouldn't care to go to those games either. Nobody really wants to pay ridiculous prices for tickets, parking, and concessions and then sit through a 3+ hour game that is essentially over after the first quarter. Scheduling more marquee games avoids this problem.

manhattanbuf said:

Guys - Nick freaking Saban had to resort to calling out Bama students so that they’d show up to all of their home games. The struggle is real for NCAAF attendance.

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Alabama also has a stadium that seats 101,000 people. It takes A LOT of effort to fill that thing. BTW the game he was upset about, Bama was playing Louisiana Lafayette...

The concept that they don’t sell out in LA and that somehow correlates to a hopeless situation here makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

65K is a reasonable capacity. We aren’t talking about a 100K monstrosity. We should be able to adequately market and fill a 65k stadium. That’s not some kind of insurmountable task.

Buffnik said:

I actually think 2 of the biggest things that would help attendance are things that CU has no control over. That's related to traffic into and out of Boulder. So the highway project of finishing the 470 loop by connecting Broomfield to Golden is one of the needle movers. The other is the NW Corridor light rail to Boulder getting done. Part of why population increases haven't had a significant impact is that it's hard for that population to go to Folsom.

Those sorts of things are looking 20 or more years out, I think. For now, it's about making the game day experience or a recruiting visit tour give a clear impression that everything is first class and a special place to be.

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I agree with your points on both of these items....unfortunately, I think there is a better than good chance that neither of these will happen in our lifetime. Boulder and Arvada have both publicly opposed the idea of connecting the 470 loop. Recently, they have used FAA concerns (JeffCo Airport) and the sensitivity of Rocky Flats to back their position. I think that as traffic worsens, hands might be forced to expand this, but I personally don't see this happening anytime soon.

EDIT: I see a more recent article that indicates that the NWP expansion might actually happen sooner than I thought......surprising (to me, anyway) Article was in the DP in March....I won't link because **** the Denver Post

Voters were sold a bill of goods in relation to the light rail expansion that was voted on and approved....especially as it relates to the NW line. If you can allow yourself to disregard the fact that RTD allocated funds from this approved tax, to the southern expansion of light rail at the expense of the northern lines (pushing the NW line expansion estimated timeframe to something like 2040 irc), one should pay attention to the critical flaw in their plan. RTD must use existing rail lines to serve the Boulder County area. RTD only semi recently (a few years ago) disclosed that they never actually reached a formal agreement with BNSF (or whichever Railroad company owns that line), and RTD's original proposal to voters, which required that this rail line be shared, is very unlikely to happen because the Railroad Company basically told RTD to piss off. Last I read, RTD is looking at ways to increase bussing as an alternative.

****ing win

Not Sure said:

The concept that they don’t sell out in LA and that somehow correlates to a hopeless situation here makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

65K is a reasonable capacity. We aren’t talking about a 100K monstrosity. We should be able to adequately market and fill a 65k stadium. That’s not some kind of insurmountable task.

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Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. Increasing capacity by 30% and expecting to fill it when we don’t fill the current capacity during a time when attendance nationwide is dropping sure sounds like a pretty insurmountable task. No one has yet explained how getting to 65k is even remotely feasible in Boulder. Improving the tailgate experience and concessions, more marketing, fixing the bathrooms, more money for assistants, better fan engagement is all great and I’m fully supportive but that doesn’t magically get another 15-20k off their couch and into the stadium.

Increasing capacity is a non-starter until the assistant salaries are competitive with 95% of the country (not just Pac 12).

Shldr2Shldr said:

A bit of a difference. People in California don't care about football. The colleges never sell out. The NFL has struggled to hang on their despite their best efforts.

Colorado, Denver in particular, loves football. The Broncos have been sold out for I don't even know how long. The wait list is like 20 years long. The thing CU needs to do better at, is convince the people around the state to care about the Buffs as much as they care about the Broncos. That is the struggle they have been fighting forever. It is a different problem than the one they face in California, and honestly one that some real sustained success could solve.

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Let's stick to college ball here shall we. I say this because they are two different types of fans. Bronco nation kind of dwarfs Buffs football I think is a fair way of looking at it.
Everytime the Buffs play someone at home and let's say a crowd of 38,000 or so shows up, what are the excuses we hear? Same thing you just said about so cal. People don't care, they are outdoors doing something or so the urban legend goes, people move to Colorado for the outdoors. That's what CU football is competeing against not the opponent of the day. How does CU get that person to come to the game verses whatever was the pull to Colorado be it hiking, photography, biking, fishing, camping, see where I'm going with this. This is how it is and always has been for the Buffs.
I'm not busting on you or anyone else about this. Other than expansion I'm liking what's being said, and wish AllBuffs had an envoy to the athletic Dept. they could use some of you on here.

Shldr2Shldr said:

Alabama also has a stadium that seats 101,000 people. It takes A LOT of effort to fill that thing. BTW the game he was upset about, Bama was playing Louisiana Lafayette...

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I agree that it is hard to fill a stadium in a town where there’s nothing else to do. Imagine having real options in a place like Boulder.

Also, the AD needs to do some Hispanic outreach. Chicanos and Mexicans in Denver love the Broncos, so why not try to steal some fans? Have some social media posts in Spanish, designate 1 game as the "Hispanic heritage" night, showoff the family friendly atmosphere of gameday for a fraction of the price of a Broncos game.