The Game Day Experience: A New Era for Colorado Athletics

Fernando Lovo, the newly appointed athletic director at the University of Colorado Boulder, has a clear vision for the future of the Buffaloes. Having previously served as the athletic director at the University of New Mexico, where he witnessed the power of a strong game day experience firsthand, Lovo is eager to bring that same energy and excitement to Boulder.

The Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is often cited as one of the best college basketball venues in the country. Lovo knows this well, having seen it up close during his time at the University of New Mexico. As he transitions to his new role at Colorado, he’s focused on creating a similar atmosphere for fans across all sports.

“[It’s] huge. That’s really important to me,” Lovo told BuffZone. “I’m fanatical about the game day experience. It’s something that I took from my time at the University of Texas. I saw how impactful it was to create. It’s not just a game. It’s got to be an event. It’s got to be engaging. It’s got to be dynamic.”

New Mexico’s success in attendance over the past year highlights the importance of a strong game day experience. In men’s basketball, the Lobos ranked 24th nationally, averaging 13,051 fans per game. The women’s team also performed well, ranking 26th with an average of 4,843 fans per game. In football, the Lobos made a significant jump in attendance, with a 57.8% increase in home games in 2025 compared to 2024.

In contrast, Colorado’s attendance numbers have been more modest. Last year, the Buffs ranked 69th in men’s basketball attendance, averaging 7,038 fans per game. This year, the average has dropped to 5,802, excluding the game against Portland State due to dangerous wind conditions. Women’s basketball attendance has also been lower, with an average of 2,967 last year and 2,045 so far this season.

Football attendance has been more stable under head coach Deion Sanders, but the team struggled last season with a 3-9 record. Despite this, the Buffs still averaged 52,514 fans at Folsom Field in 2024 and 50,459 in the 2025 season.

Lovo understands that while winning on the field or court is essential, the game day experience must go beyond that. He emphasizes the need for creativity in in-game scripting to keep fans engaged throughout the event.

“We’ve got to be creative with our scripting of our in-game scripts to keep people involved,” he said. “It’s not enough just to say, ‘Hey, come watch a game.’ That’s not the way we’re going to approach things. We’re going to look at how do we do things outside the venue? Inside the venue?”

He believes that CU needs to give fans a reason to choose a CU event over others. Once they arrive, it’s crucial to make the experience easy and convenient.

“Make parking ingress really easy, really convenient for them; getting into the building really easy,” he said.

Once inside the venue, Lovo wants to create an exciting and engaging atmosphere. “Obviously, we need to compete at a high level, but we’ve got to make it fun. We’ve got to make it engaging,” he added.

Lovo is confident that the fans at CU are already supportive, and he looks forward to building on what is already in place. “We’ve got great fans there at CU and I can’t wait to build on what’s already going on there, which I know is a lot of really good stuff, and try some things that hopefully catch people’s attention.”

While the CU Events Center may never match the intensity of The Pit, Lovo is determined to bring the same kind of energy and excitement to Boulder. “The Pit was tremendous in terms of the excitement and the environment, and that’s what we need (at CU). We need that at our venues. Our home venues have to really create an advantage for us. They have to. That’s our job as administrators.”

He is committed to making the game day experience at Colorado as engaging and dynamic as possible. “We need to create a really exciting environment, and like I said, make it really fun and engaging for our fans, so that if people are in the stands and they’re loud, it has a tangible impact on winning and losing; it just does. That’s undeniable, so we’re going to work really hard at that.”