A resolution in the year-long impasse over the future sites of the Colorado-Colorado State series could be announced as early as Monday at the event’s annual luncheon at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a natural advocate of returning the series to the city, is among speakers lined up for a pre-luncheon news conference. Respective coaches, athletic directors and top university administrators are also on the agenda.
Within a few hours of last year’s luncheon, CU issued a release that it was exercising its home-team option and moving the 2009 game to Boulder. Shortly after, CSU announced it would move the 2010 game to Fort Collins.
CU athletic director Mike Bohn and CSU counterpart Paul Kowalczyk didn’t return calls this week. Kowal-czyk said last Saturday an announcement would be forthcoming, but couldn’t say when.
The schools are on each other’s future schedules through 2014. Denver has hosted the rivalry every year since 1998, except 2004 and 2005, when both games were played in Boulder. The 2005 (54,972) and 2004 (54,954) games at Folsom Field rank as the top two crowds in the stadium’s history.
When CU announced the move to Boulder for the upcoming game, Bohn emphasized CU would have only five home games in Boulder without the CSU game. Many Big 12 teams have seven home dates.
CSU officials, including coach Steve Fairchild, prefer the game be played in Denver every year. Both schools have the home or Denver option.
On Friday, Mac Freeman, vice president of stadium operations at Invesco Field, wouldn’t confirm or deny negotiations with the respective schools.
Whether the in-state rivalry is the first weekend of the college season or later in September, Freeman said: “We submitted dates to the NFL. We’ve already looked at dates into the future, and we’re absolutely confident we can accommodate those games not in the first weekend of the season.”
Freeman pointed to last year’s mammoth endeavor when the stadium hosted a Broncos preseason game, the closing night of the Democratic National Convention and the Rocky Mountain Showdown within one week.
One of last year’s natural cheerleaders for holding the event in Denver, former Denver Metro Chamber CEO Joe Blake, is now the chancellor of the CSU system.
CSU’s Hughes Stadium seats 34,400 and Folsom Field lists a capacity of 53,750. There are a limited number of tickets for the opposing team at on-campus games. Invesco Field seats 76,125. Of the nine games at Invesco Field, there have been crowds of at least 73,000 five times, and the fewest was 65,701 in 2006.
“We believe this game should be in Denver,” Freeman said. “This is a celebration of two great universities. We would love to see it back.”
