DENVER — Rockies fans are shaking off a 10-1 loss to the Phillies in Friday’s home opener.
But win or lose, the weekend will be far from a loss for downtown Denver.
“We always see a big jump in foot traffic for opening day,” Britt Diehl, the VP of External Affairs with the Downtown Denver Partnership, said.
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Diehl says last year 250,000 people flooded downtown for opening day, and 90,000 people were drawn into the Ballpark District alone.
“If you think about the fact that Coors Field fits just about 50,000 people, there were 40,000 extra people in this neighborhood and hundreds of thousands in the broader downtown,” she added.
Last year’s event also brought in more than $6 million dollars in revenue boost.
“Not only are people coming to the stadium to cheer on the team, but they are taking in all the festivities. They're going to bars to restaurants, they're shopping in between,” Diehl said.
As the Rockies continue to play throughout the weekend, Diehl expects the numbers to climb, especially with the Avs playing at home all weekend too, which Diehl says will be a “driving force”.
“Weekends in general tend to be higher foot traffic for us, we have a really strong visitor market here. More and more, we're seeing Denverites come out to enjoy downtown, and so we're looking forward to the Rockies foot traffic really boosting what we already see in terms of numbers climbing on weekends”.
"Opening day is so exciting for downtown because it doesn't only represent the start of our Rockies season, but it also represents what we like to call the spring upswing, when foot traffic really starts to ramp up for the summer," Diehl added.
Diehl says she has especially high hopes for this summer.
"With this being the first full summer of 16th Street being open after construction, we're expecting a boost from that too," she said.
Though it was a bit windy for this year’s home opener, it was still much sunnier than last year's rainy and chilly game, so the Downtown Denver Partnership expects to beat last year’s numbers.
Rockies play again Saturday night at 6:10 p.m. and Sunday at 1:10 p.m., against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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