Fort Collins deserves a baseball team
If Green Bay can do football, Fort Collins can do baseball
Fort Collins' baseball history goes back to the 1800s, with the Fort Collins Famers in what was then called the Colorado State League.
Colorado State University doesn’t have an official baseball program, most likely due to Title IX and the football and basketball team eating up most of the men’s scholarships, but the university does have various clubs that play. (Not to mention CSU is always watching their bottom line, and would certainly not make $5 million to $7 million on a baseball squad.)
There’s also various leagues throughout Northern Colorado, including the Fort Collins Foxes.
But this is a little bit different, and here the argument:
Fort Collins could have a major league roster, and should at least have a minor league team in the city.
Green Bay, the city, has a population of around 100,000; significantly close to Fort Collins. The Green Bay metropolitan area, however, does have a population north of 325,000.
I think, if Green Bay can support the Packers, Fort Collins should be more than capable of supporting some sort of professional baseball team.
While Denver and the Northern Colorado corridor in general are not as populated as Arizona (population 5.9 million lol), the Phoenix metropolitan area hosts 10 (ten!!) separate stadiums during the MLB spring training Cactus League.
The smallest stadium in the Cactus League is the Tempe Diablo Stadium, which holds just less than 10,000 people.
Holman Stadium, located in Vero Beach, Florida, in the MLB’s Grapefruit League, has a seating capacity of 6,500.
Both of these capacities are easily filled in a city like Fort Collins.
Tickets to the spring training games at Sloan Park, Arizona, run anywhere from $35 to $100.
The Fort Collins Falcons (?) could be a feeder team for the Rockies, the Cardinals, the Arizona Diamondbacks, etc.
They could compete with Cheyenne; The University of Wyoming in Larimie; Boulder; Denver; Grand Junction …
It gets warm enough in Fort Collins where it could (potentially) be a spring training location. Although this is probably unlikely, considering March and April are the snowiest months in Colorado.
There are potential sponsorship deals, TV rights with FCTV, etc.
Grand Junction, just across the Divide, hosts the JUCO World Series every year.
From KKCO-11:
“The City of Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce estimates that this event alone brings in an estimated $2.8 million for the city.”
This is a staggering amount of money for a week-long series of baseball games.
If there was a regular schedule of baseball games hosted in Fort Collins at the minor-league level, it could be a boon for the city.
Play ball.