Colorado State athletics, after $18-million revenue shortfall, intends on full-capacity football attendance for 2021 – The Denver Post

Colorado State football plans to re-open Canvas Stadium at full capacity this fall after its athletic department endured an $18-million revenue shortfall amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It will be important for us to get as close to normalized operations as possible,” CSU athletic director Joe Parker said Tuesday. “We’re planning right now for full occupancy of all of our venues. We’ll see if there are any restrictions that are required. But the news that we’re seeing … shows things getting really good in June, July, and hopefully, beyond that.

“We’re right now filling the venue with season ticket sales, individual game sales and mini-plans; without any plans of physically distancing in the stadium.”

CSU football will play six home games next season — South Dakota State, Vanderbilt, San Jose State, Boise State, Air Force, and Nevada — with hopes of filling 41,000 seats at Canvas Stadium. Parker said the majority of CSU season ticket-holders from a year ago banked their payments for use this season.

Specifics on game-day policies are still being developed as administrators react to public health guidelines. Parker suggested those fans still not comfortable with shoulder-to-shoulder seating in the fall will have socially distanced options as well.

“If there are people that have higher levels of concern, and feel like they want that type of reassurance, that they can be self-select to go to those areas,” Parker said. “The vaccine is getting widely distributed and the people in the state of Colorado are taking advantage of that. Hopefully, when each of our numbers is called, we do.”

Parker expressed confidence in the financial viability of Rams athletics moving forward as it recovers from a significant revenue shortfall without fans. One big reason: CSU was given the option to delay debt payments on its $220-million stadium.

“Which took really the biggest chunk of the expenses associated with Canvas Stadium’s operating budget, which was debt service, and they moved that out into future years,” Parker said. “That created a lot (more) flexibility than we would have had. They applied that ‘scoop and toss’ for three years. … That’s why it’s not like we’ve incurred a deficit that has to be addressed with central administration. We just really knuckled down on our operating expenses.”

CSU’s athletic department has been especially frugal during the pandemic with purchases of $200 or more needing executive staff approval. Bringing fans back to campus will help alleviate those budget pains.

“We really made it clear to all of our programs that financial management and living in an austere environment was really, really important this year,” Parker said. “We’re going to finish within budget.”

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