Rick George (Colorado’s athletic director) has to be smiling from ear to ear right now.
When the University of Colorado Boulder hired Deion Sanders as their head football coach, they had two goals in mind: 1. To win championships, obviously (but we’ll have to wait for the verdict on that), and 2. To generate a massive amount of excitement for the program and re-establish their relevance in the world of college football.
The Buffaloes have succeeded with flying colors with the latter plan, and it’s showing in their revenue stream.
Colorado has sold nearly 25,000 tickets for their very first spring game under Coach Prime, according to BuffZone’s Brian Howell. Students have claimed roughly 6,000 free tickets, which brings us to over 30,000 total ticket reservations.
The spring game will be played April 22, meaning the Buffaloes are already close to their total attendance with two months to still remaining. Another mind-blowing figure: From 2015-22, a total of 30,450 fans attended Colorado’s spring game over seven years — the Buffaloes are on track to eclipse that number in 2023 alone. And to make it even more crazy, all of the 30,450 tickets were given away for free, while 2023 tickets were for sale at $10 a pop. It’s the first time the Buffs have sold game tickets since 1980.
For the first time, Colorado is selling tickets to its spring game, which is two months from today.
CU has sold over 30,000 tickets — on pace to surpass their last 7 spring games combined… which were free.
(h/t @BrianHowell33) pic.twitter.com/EXbS3gSwhO
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 22, 2023
Just (bleeping) wild … and all of this equates to a 10 billion percent increase in ticket sales.
In other ticket sale news with Colorado, they’ve set a 20-year high with the renewal of season tickets at 97%, and they’ve also sold 3,000 new season tickets, according to BuffZone. Additionally, 22% of spring game ticket sales were new customers. (RELATED: ‘This Is My Goal’: Tom Brady’s ‘New Girlfriend’ Veronika Rajek Dreaming Of Being In Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue)