The Denver Gazette sports business insider is a reader’s guide to understanding the influence of money, politics and power behind their favorite leagues, teams and players:
Sports business insider: Beer sales at Folsom Field last football season almost doubled with Deion Sanders as coach of the CU Buffaloes.
Short version: The Denver Gazette requested public records from the University of Colorado for the gross beer revenue from all football games played at Folsom Field over the last two seasons. The school reported an increase of more than $1.37 million.
—2022: $1,539,073.18
—2023: $2,916,939.99
Long version: The Buffs hired Sanders on Dec. 3, 2022, and a sleeping college football giant started to rise. CU sold out their full home slate of 2023 home games for the first time in program history. Folsom Field average attendance jumped from 42,847 to 53,180 (a school record).
The economic impact — according to a December study from Visit Boulder — was estimated at $72.1 million from “direct spending by visitors” related to CU home football games. Call it the Coach Prime effect.
CU did not offer alcohol sales inside Folsom Field until 2014 when it debuted beer gardens in specific areas of the stadium. In 2018, it expanded to the concourse. Most universities for decades resisted stadium beer sales to prevent underage drinking and other alcohol-related fan incidents. But the draw of beer revenue is simply too strong, especially as athletic programs keep pace in the NIL arms race.
Last November, the Associated Press published the results of a survey among Power 5 teams and Notre Dame that found 80% of all schools (55 of 69) now sell alcohol in public areas of their stadiums on game days. Colorado State, Air Force and CU all offer beer in their respective college football venues.
Key context: The Buffs have their own beer. In 2019, Boulder-based Avery Brewing Company released Stampede, a Colorado Gold Lager, as the official beer of CU athletics with a 4.5% ABV. Avery says on its website: “Pure Rocky Mountain water sourced from our Colorado home makes Stampede light, clean, and perfect for game days in every season.”
Stampede won a silver medal at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival for American-style Lager.
What’s next: Relaxed public attitudes about drinking allowed universities to monetize stadium alcohol sales after years of shunning the revenue source. Is it possible that marijuana might be next?
Colorado was the first state to legalize its recreational use and collected more than $2.3 billion in marijuana taxes between 2014 and 2023, according to Colorado Public Radio. The idea might seem farfetched right now. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. But if that changes, don’t be surprised if CU finds a way to monetize it.
The beer is already flowing at Folsom Field.
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