Jeff Letofsky: Future of CHSAA state championship football games remain unclear

Dec. 6—The Colorado High School Activities Association is in a quandary and has been for the past couple of years.

The association has been fluctuating on sites for its seven state high school football championship games. It has admittedly been searching for a one-venue site for all seven games and did that last fall amid a global pandemic.

Last fall, all seven state title games were played in Pueblo at the ThunderBowl on the Colorado State University Pueblo campus over a two-week span. And there were five more championships played at the ThunderBowl in the spring when the season was split in two.

This past season, five classifications returned to the ThunderBowl — 3A, 2A, 1A, 8-man and 6-man. The Class 5A and 4A title games were played at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.

That scenario will play out again in 2022 with five games played at the ThunderBowl and two at Empower Field to complete two-year contracts with both venues..

But what happens after that?

That's still up in the air.

According to a Pueblo official who is one of the contact sources and works directly with CHSAA, the city and the college would love to continue to have the championships played in the Steel City.

"We'd love to have the 5A and 4A (in addition to the other five games)," the source said. "We try and make it an experience for the kids. We want you here and Pueblo wants you here.

"We help them anyway we can to make it as easy and memorable experience. Ultimately, we'd like to have all seven (championships) here."

Pueblo has made its bid and done its part.

While Pueblo remains an option, CHSAA assistant commissioner Adam Bright, the football liaison, wants to continue to weigh other options.

"We have great partners with CSU Pueblo and the Broncos," he said. "We have contracts that come up in another year. We really want to explore what all the options are. We want to offer equitable opportunity for all our schools that participate in football.

"With contracts being up we haven't had the opportunity to research other options. We want to see if we can do things better."

Bright admitted that a one-venue weekend has been discussed.

"More and more states are going to that model and there's value there to see if that's something we can do, have a championship weekend where we can celebrate the smaller schools on one day and celebrate what football is about," he said.

"But many states have an indoor facility and we don't have a dome so we don't have that option."

The Pueblo site is advantageous because of the weather, he said.

"The banana belt in Pueblo makes it nice and it's something we're keenly aware of," Bright went on. "We're going to look everywhere and see what best fits. It may be Pueblo."

Bright reiterated that the small-school championships in Pueblo have had immense success.

"Monday night I was in Limon for a meeting with all our 6-man schools," he said. "Talking with them some had reservations about continuing to play in Pueblo. But the four coaches who have played in Pueblo (in championships) stood up and said to stop the conversation. They said they've found their home in Pueblo.

"The people who have been in Pueblo love the venue, love the town and feel welcome. (Pueblo) has received high marks and we know we can build a championship weekend there.

"In the 1A game between Centauri and Limon, the Centauri fans were in the parking lot 3 1/2 hours early tail gaiting. And they were loud during the game. You could hear the roar from that side of the stadium."

One of the pushbacks about playing in Pueblo is the travel for Class 5A and 4A schools. Bright believes that's not as big an issue as some have related.

"It's all relative based on where you're at," he said. "I haven't heard a lot from those (5A and 4A schools). There's been some rumblings but the other option is not to play the championship games.

"That has muted a lot of those rumblings. We just want to make it a good experience for everyone involved."

While none of the games have sold out at the spacious 6,500-seat ThunderBowl, attendance for the five championships has been impressive.

"The attendance has doubled from what we thought," the Pueblo source said. "The 6-man and 8-man was twice as much as we budgeted. We had much more than we thought for 1A and 2A was a lot less for some reason.

"But we've been happy with the attendance."

Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky