With the first high school football state titles at Canvas Stadium in the books, fans showed they are willing to head north for championship football.
The Class 5A and 4A title games pitting Columbine vs. Cherry Creek and Erie vs. Palmer Ridge drew a combined attendance of approximately 12,500 to Fort Collins last Saturday, according to a spokesperson for event sponsor Canvas Credit Union.
That estimate exceeds six of the final seven “Championship Saturdays” held at Empower Field, where the games were played from 2005-22, minus the 2020 COVID year.
“I was a little hesitant about what to think as far as sending two metro schools up to Fort Collins for the game,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry admitted, “but I thought our crowd was really good and the stadium was beautiful. I don’t think it impacted our fans traveling.”
The 12,500 figure represents 1,500 more than last year’s crowd in Denver. Over the 17 years the games were played in the Broncos’ stadium, the big-school title games averaged about 10,900 fans.
Lowry, whose Rebels upset the four-time defending champion Bruins 28-14, noted that Canvas Stadium felt “much louder this year” compared to Columbine’s title showing against Cherry Creek at Empower Field in 2019. That’s largely due to the smaller capacity of Canvas Stadium (36,500) compared to Empower Field (76,125).
Columbine running back/safety Josh Snyder said the Rams’ home “was better than Mile High would’ve been, just because the stadium as a whole is smaller, so it feels like more of an actual game (atmosphere) that we’re used to playing, and it feels more packed with the crowd we had there.”
“With the amount of people that we had there, it felt like the town was on our back,” Columbine center Carlos Mendoza said.
CHSAA’s decision to move the games to Fort Collins was financially motivated.
Over the course of CHSAA’s two nine-year agreements to play the championships at Empower Field, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame was the official host of the games. In CHSAA’s most recent agreement with the Hall and Empower, the association’s revenue from “Championship Saturday” was capped at $60,000. The Hall of Fame donated a large part of the revenue to various charities.
CHSAA expected to increase its revenue by as much as six figures by moving the games to Fort Collins.
The Rebels thought Canvas Stadium provided a championship atmosphere for the games, even if it lacked the aura of an NFL stadium. And they relished the fact that was new ground for everyone, considering they were attempting to keep Cherry Creek from the five-peat.
“When we found out the game was moving I was a little bit shocked at first, because it had been at Mile High for so many years,” Columbine linebacker/fullback James Cillessen said. “But at the same time, (Canvas) is still a big stadium, a big stage. And it’s a D-I program with great facilities… I also think playing there helped us a lot, because we felt like Mile High was sort of home territory for Dave Logan and Cherry Creek, so it was more of a more neutral site.”
While Columbine earned their sixth Class 5A title over the weekend, Erie (the fans with the shortest drive to Fort Collins) beat Palmer Ridge (the fans with the longest) in the Class 4A game, 20-6, for the Tigers’ first championship since 1997.
