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CU hopes to net $15M for Folsom naming rights
Photo by Cliff Grassmick
CU helmets on top of a tailgating SUV next to Folsom Field.
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AURORA — The University of Colorado is exploring selling stadium naming rights to Folsom Field under the condition that any potential buyer agree to include the current name in the future moniker, Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson said.
The stadium seats 53,750 for college football games on autumn afternoons and has been home to the Buffaloes since the 1924 season. It was originally called Colorado Stadium, but the name was changed in 1944 to honor legendary coach Frederick Folsom following his death.
Peterson said the charge to find a buyer will be a joint effort that will include representatives from the CU Foundation, the campus and the athletic department. No specific talks have started yet.
“We’re exploring what the naming opportunities for the football stadium might be, recognizing that Folsom Field is the name of the field,” Peterson said Wednesday during a break at the Board of Regents meeting at the Anschutz Medical Campus. “We would retain Folsom Field as part of the name. We’ve had no discussions about changing it. It has historical significance and it would be, I think, a huge mistake for us to consider doing something like that.”
Regents, who would have to approve any sale, say they have had preliminary talks with Peterson about the idea and are in favor of allowing such a deal with a reputable company. Peterson and Board of Regents chairwoman Pat Hayes, R-Aurora, said selling the naming rights wouldn’t necessarily mean the revenue would go solely to the athletic department.
“When we get a naming gift for the biotechnology building, it doesn’t go to the biotechnology department,” Peterson said. “Certainly the athletic department plays a role here. I think we’re providing the resources athletics needs to be successful, but, no, this doesn’t automatically go to the athletic department.”
No one was willing to publicly place a price tag on the naming rights, but one regent said the school shouldn’t settle for less $15 million for rights lasting between 15 and 20 years.
If the school could generate $15 million or more from stadium naming rights and the athletic department was allowed to keep all or most of the money, it would be able to pay for a new basketball practice facility and repay much of its debt to the CU System and the campus.
The athletic department received an $8 million loan from the CU system and the Boulder campus two years ago and will repay the loan over the course of 10 years. Hayes, who called Folsom Field “the most beautiful football stadium in the nation,” said it would make sense for the athletic department to repay the loan early if it received funds from the sale of naming rights.
“I think that Chancellor Peterson would probably want to look at that and see how much of that money should come back to him for taking a load off the athletic department when they were in debt,” Hayes said. “It’s an interesting situation because it is a football field, but there are other things that go on there, not to the extent that the football program uses it, but it needs to be shared by students.”
5th year opposition
Peterson said he is willing to listen to proposals for allowing a fifth year of eligibility for football players, but he is generally opposed to the idea.
Big 12 football coaches and other coaches around the nation are in favor of granting a fifth year of eligibility because trends show most students — not just student-athletes — are requiring five years to get through college these days. Many student-athletes already attend colleges for five years, using one of those years as a redshirt season in which they are held out of competition.
Peterson redshirted one year during his football career at Kansas State where he played wide receiver from 1972-74. He said redshirting allowed him to get a dual degree in mathematics and mechanical engineering. Peterson said Big 12 chancellors and presidents have not spent much time talking about the issue.
“We have a redshirt option for students and we still have a principle goal for students who come to us in the athletics department to get an education. It’s not to play for longer at the college level,” he said. “I haven’t spent a lot of time talking to Mike Bohn about it, but on the surface, I’m not particularly supportive. I guess if the norm for students was a five-year degree, it might make more sense.”
Peterson said the goal every school and athletic program should strive to achieve is improving graduation rates. He said the best way to do that might be to return to the days when freshmen were not allowed to play. That rule was changed in 1973.
“If we were trying to advance the throughput of student-athletes and allow them to graduate more quickly and on time, then doing away with freshmen eligibility would probably do more than adding a fifth year of eligibility,” Peterson said.
Nominees are ...
Fox Sports Net’s Big 12 Showcase nominated four games for Big 12 game of the year award. The list includes Colorado’s upset of then-No. 3 Oklahoma at Folsom Field last fall. Other nominees include the Kansas national championship game victory over Memphis in basketball, Missouri’s win over Kansas in football and the five-overtime thriller in men’s basketball between Baylor and Texas A&M.
The results will be announced on this week’s episode Friday at 2:30 p.m.
Posted by BuffMan6236 on June 5, 2008 at 1:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
No problem with selling the naming rights, but it would be outrageous not to give the revenue to the athletic department for something they created.
How about DelMonte Folsom Field, since its our favorite place to can corn?
Seriously, ConocoPhillips Folsom Field. They're moving much of their international R&D here and it would tick off all the hippies.
Go BUFFS!
Posted by archalon on June 5, 2008 at 7:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
any minute now, rswright will chip in.
I personally am opposed to corporate naming rights. But if that is what needs to be done.........
Posted by DCBuff on June 5, 2008 at 8:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with BuffMan...let's get some corporate sponsor with deep pockets like ConocoPhillips. The liberals and hippies will be pissed, but these are the same individuals who don't watch football or even care that CU has a football program. So it doesn't matter what they think. Personally, I would rather not have a corporate sponsor on the stadium, but if that what it takes to make CU athletics more competitive, let's get the best sponsor we can get.
Posted by dabuffs50 on June 5, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sun, IBM, Conoco, Coors, who gives a s***... Give the U some money!
Posted by rockyloco on June 5, 2008 at 10:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
While they're at it renaming the stadium, why not get the name of the mascot right? The Bison is what they've got on a leash, as the species of animal known as the Buffalo has never lived in North America, only Asia.
I feel sorry for anyone in the Biology department who knows that this school of "higher learning" (double meaning for CU) can't even get the correct name for the species that represents their institution. Totally lame.
Go Bi's!
Posted by nwbuff32 on June 5, 2008 at 11:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd say that post was totally lame.
Posted by archalon on June 5, 2008 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Start a "save Folsom Field" drive. If all the former NFL players with CU ties donated $1000, we could keep Folsom Field forever.
Posted by geedub on June 5, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Some other D1 majors sell the naming rights to everything separately - the stadium, the field, the parking lot, the locker rooms, the boxes, you name it, they sell it. The way this is being positioned could be interpreted as if they actually sell the name for the STADIUM and change the stadium's name, while the FIELD - the grass/turf itself - stays Folsom Field and has a name/title on the building in the North End zone to tout it- then the Stadium can still be Coors Stadium, Boston Market Stadium, Celestial Seasons Stadium, etc. and Folsom FIELD remains true.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 5, 2008 at 11:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i know tigers and lions have always lived in places like missouri,detroit,and louisiana.
Nice post rocky!
Posted by flabuff227 on June 5, 2008 at 11:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
anyways, It would be really weird to see any of those names before or after Folsom. I dont like it but it may be necessary.
Posted by archalon on June 5, 2008 at 11:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
good point flabuff.
Posted by BuffTime on June 5, 2008 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess no one has figured out that Mile High Stadium did the exact opposite and no one seems to care. What's the big deal? It will always be Folsom Field that the Buffs play on. If they can generate some extra cash why not? Coors Event center anyone?
Though I have to say that the posts here are much more positive than the idiots posting on the main page version of this article. I bet not a single one of them either went to CU or a football game for that matter. But that doesn't stop them from claiming offense at something that has nothing to do with them anyway.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 5, 2008 at 1:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
" Hi im brent musberger and we are in the beautiful conoco stadium at folsom field". That sounds pretty weird.
Especially when the majority of us haven't known it as anything else but folsom field.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 5, 2008 at 1:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
bufftime- just to clarify. I went to every single home game from the time i was six years old to 18 years old. After that i went as a student. ufornunately, for only a year. When they come to florida, i go to those games and am making the trip to jacksonville this year.
dont make blind assumptions!
Posted by buffalo_flyer on June 5, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
move into the present and sell the naming rights. anyone against this idea is stuck in the fifties
Posted by dsnow622 on June 5, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What a proud day when we all can troop into "Hooters Folusum Field," or maybe, for the old hands "Ripple Wine Stadium." Commercialization gone mad!
Posted by walto_clown on June 5, 2008 at 2:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yup. Those are some lame posts on the main page all right. I agree that it's a little tacky, but selling the naming rights to stadims is a widely accepted practice and a legitimate scheme to earn some money for the department. What's the point of being opposed to money and marketing? Can't the idealists understand that their entire utopian pursuit is shielded by the dirty money of our capitalist society. Of course they can't...otherwise they wouldn't be idealists.
Posted by walto_clown on June 5, 2008 at 2:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm personally hoping for a no-holds-barred bidding war between The Sink and The Walrus (ummm, it's been a while since I've been back to Boulder...do these places still exist??)
Of course my first choice would be Front Range Anglers, but I think the cost-benefit-analysis doesn't really balance.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 5, 2008 at 3:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hey clown- this i s the norm for pro sports. it hasn't taken over college sports yet.
Just because i dont like the name change doesnt mean i dont think they shouldnt do it.
Posted by skipples4u on June 5, 2008 at 4:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
yes sir the sink and whalrus WILL NEVER LEAVE!!!!! especially after rob redford was a janator at the sink while in school
Posted by walto_clown on June 6, 2008 at 12:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Flabuff, as indicated, my post referred to the folks on the main page who take the "money is bad...corporations are bad" approach. If you check out the same article on dailycamera.com the remarks to which I refer will stand out.
I think everybody on Buffzone was pretty much on the mark.
I don't know how many college stadiums hold corporate names.
Posted by rodrigo on June 6, 2008 at 7:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey, since Anschutz is among the richest men in the universe and he's already got his name on the med center, why doesn't he just pony up for Folsom as well? He could/should be CU's R. Boone Pickens or Phil Knight.
Just for grins: can anyone name the former Buff/NFL wide receiver who was also drafted by Major League Baseball and the NBA?
Posted by flabuff227 on June 6, 2008 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
it wasnt darren chiaverini was it.
Posted by rodrigo on June 6, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Interesting guess, flabuff. But you've got to go further back.
Two hints: the bulk of his NFL career was spent with the Cleveland Browns - he even haunted the Broncos on occassion - and with the end of his playing days he became a hugely successful high school coach... in Colorado.
Posted by buffalo_flyer on June 6, 2008 at 11:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Dave Logan
Posted by rodrigo on June 6, 2008 at 11:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Bingo. BF gets a 1974 Wheat Ridge Farmer (Logan's hs) yearbook! Nice call.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 7, 2008 at 5:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
my fault walto- I didnt know thats what u meant by the "main page". Ive never looked over their for sports. After looking now, I know what u mean.
Posted by extrapoint on June 7, 2008 at 9:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I spent quite a bit of time at the sink. I never saw Robert Redford let a alone a janitor. I cant even imagine a janitor in that place. A real janitor would run away screaming.
Posted by flabuff227 on June 10, 2008 at 7:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Id like to take a look at that yearbook. I would like see dave logan's mop back then.
Posted by phibuffa on June 11, 2008 at 2:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As long as they keep Folsom's name and the rights are limited to 15 years, I could care less. Let's get two or three companies in there for more $$. Qwoors Stadium at Folsom Field, anyone? They can have Qwest internet terminals that dispense Coors right out of a tap hanging over the screen, so we can send drunk email messages to opposing fans while our team is pummeling theirs.
On a more serious note, someone needs to make up a new Buffalo Stomp of some sort that fans can use during the games. The CU Fight song is awesome (especially because virtually everyone knows the words), but our own signature chant would be cool.
Posted by houston_buff on June 11, 2008 at 8:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
....especially the chorus. BTW Conoco is still based in Ponca City/Houston and I doubt anybody there wants to crossover to Boulder. How about an organic sponsor that markets the hydroponic? Heh Heh (coughing sounds)-just kidding...Have made flights already for the WVU game. Are your frickin kidding me-that will rival the best of all night games ever at Folsom. I would list mine but I struggle with dates-I did attend an OU game in 87 on turkey weekend we won. That is somehow drawfed by a certain game against a team from Nebraska where Chris Brown ran for 3 miles and we scored almost a dozen touchdowns.
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