Going to a football game used to be synonymous with tailgating and sneaking in a flask beneath the coat.
Step aside, party people. Froufrou coffee drinkers, in their continuing quest to take over the world, have infiltrated Invesco Field at Mile High.
“In response to public demand, there will be a Starbucks kiosk in the club level,” said Mac Freeman, who heads the stadium operations at Invesco Field.
Otherwise, few enhancements were deemed necessary for a building that opened four years ago.
Besides better coffee, club-level patrons also will have a greater variety of fare as food-action stations, where chefs prepare fresh food, have been added.
Not that the Broncos say they have forgotten the common folk. Perhaps the biggest improvement to Invesco Field was made outside the stadium, where the Colorado Department of Transportation finally finished the 23rd Street exit ramp that will move motorists traveling southbound on Interstate 25 directly to the stadium. In the first four seasons of Invesco, those Broncos fans made the unwieldy weave through the narrow-street, Jefferson Park neighborhood.
Military recognition will be a prominent part of the game-day theme, as will a fan-appreciation program, where salutations will be delivered on billboards, television, and scoreboards and ThunderVision features.
“We all sense real optimism about this season, and we’re doing our part inside the stadium to try and pump it up as much as we can,” Freeman said.
Pumping up the excitement at Invesco Field?
It has been an issue since the Broncos left the rowdy ruins of Mile High Stadium.
“I think our building is so nice, people would sit back in their seats, as opposed to old Mile High where there was one old video board at one end and a crackly sound system,” Freeman said. “Now we have all these video boards and matrix boards and streaming video and distributed sound system. I think to some degree there was just a little eye candy that had them a little distracted. I think we’ve seen each year fans getting a little more comfortable.”
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
