Rocky Mountain showdown shows nearly 19000 empty seats - 9NEWS.com
DENVER - While Colorado State University lost Saturday's Rocky Mountain Showdown at Sports Authority Field to the University of Colorado, it also lost the ticket battle to get fans in the stands. CSU sold just more than half its allotted 32,000 tickets to the game, while CU nearly sold out of its 38,000 tickets, school officials said.
"No question, this is a negative for us financially as well as image-wise," CSU Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk told the Fort Collins Coloradoan Thursday.
At Saturday's game, Kowalczyk said CSU may have to revisit ticket prices for next year's game.
The lowest ticket price at Sports Authority Field for the Rocky Mountain Showdown was $55 for an upper-deck seat, $30 more than if CSU played at home.
"We'll talk with CU on that as well," Kowalczyk said. "We may have overreached on that and we'll revisit that."
At Saturday's game, there were 57, 186 fans, nearly 19,000 less than what Sports Authority Field can hold.
At five of the first six games CSU and CU played in Denver, there were 75,000 fans. 2003 saw the most fans when 76,219 showed up to watch the game.
But both teams had better records in the early part of last decade.
"It's not that hard to fix ticket sales when you start getting some W's on the board," said Metro Denver Sports Commission President KieAnn Brownell. "A little winning from either team will help improve the attendance for sure."
The game is under contract to remain in Denver until 2019, but Brownell is setting a longer goal.
"We believe that over the next 50 years, we can turn this into one of the great events in College Football across the country," she said.
As for next year, "We've got some work to do obviously from the athletic department's standpoint," said Kowalcyzk. "[We need] to reach out to our fans to make sure they understand the importance of this game."
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18 Sep, 2011--
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