BOULDER, Colorado — If you thought the Coach Prime hype would be crashing back down to earth after last week’s 42-6 loss to Oregon, think again.
With No. 8 USC visiting Colorado on Saturday, Boulder is once again the Hollywood of college football.
LeBron James, Matthew McConaughey, and Jay-Z top a growing list of celebrities rumored to be attending the game — Deion Sanders said the number is probably three times higher than what’s being reported. The game will air in Fox’s coveted “Big Noon Saturday” slot and could break a Pac-12 viewership record.
For the general public, a nosebleed seat at Folsom Field will cost at least $200 on the secondary market. Colorado sold out of tickets for the entire season for the first time in history, and is one of the hottest tickets in college football all fall.
And while Colorado plans to roll out the proverbial red carpet for the A-listers, it is having to get creative to take care of everyone with its limited resources amid record demand.
“We haven’t told them no,” Alexis Williams, Colorado’s senior associate athletic director for external operations, said to Front Office Sports. “We don’t have suites — I think that’s the expectation, that we would have a suite to accommodate each one, and that’s just not what we have.”
Williams joked that she’s “trying to find somewhere for them to go,” but welcomes the growing celebrity interest. “We offer them our other premium spaces where there are not as many people — a little more reduced exposure to all the fans,” she explained.
