Beer at Moby Arena.
For years, we’ve wondered why Colorado State University — with a bar on campus in the RamSkeller — and beer at Canvas Stadium, didn’t sell beer at CSU men’s basketball games. Beer is big business here in Fort Collins, it’s part of our culture, and now fans will be able to enjoy an ice cold one while watching the Rams hoops team during Niko Medved’s new Era.
Colorado State Athletic Director Joe Parker said via a phone conversation today they finally made the choice to make a drinking area for fans because it now “Makes sense with the success of the New Belgium Porch.”
Construction on the area, which Parker said was formerly sections J and K in the southwest corner of the ancient arena, began on Monday and the school has ripped out about 600 seats of what was bench seating. When it’s all said and done — which Parker said will be about four weeks — 300 fans will be able to enter the area and drink while inside, but not take their beers out of that designated section.
“Imagine the New Belgium Porch experience, but 300 people,” he explained.
He said they picked that area because they, “Never had a season-ticket location there,” as it was used mainly as a student section overflow area for the few sellouts at Moby in recent years.
So, will there be just beer in the “loft” area? While there won’t be spirts, Parker said there will be beer and “probably wine” as well.
And, as for the rumors about people needing to have season tickets to enter the drinking area, Parker said it will be completely open to the first 300 fans who want to hang there during weekday games, which are much more sparsely attended on the whole.
But, for weekend games, they’ll be “more restrictive” on who gets in, without explaining too much more.
While he said it would take about 4 weeks to build, the opening of the Moby “loft” is slated for around the start of second semester, so, mid to late-January. And, he explained that if there is great success with the loft — which will sell beer from multiple, mobile carts on wheels — a second one could be built on the east side as well.
For years, Moby Arena’s capacity was set at 8,745 and the Rams enjoyed only a few sellouts over the last eight years I’ve been on the beat. That attendance will be adjusted to about 8,200 with the new loft going in. The last time crowds averaged over 5,000 per game was in 2012-13, arguably the greatest year in CSU Men’s basketball history.
The Rams’ senior-laden team went 26-9 that year including making it to the NCAA Tournament and winning a game over Missouri before losing to the eventual champion Louisville Cardinals. That year, Moby Arena sold out for three straight home games, against Wyoming, one of the craziest games and the “Orange Out” win over San Diego State and the loss to No. 16 New Mexico when the Rams were ranked No. 22.
Since and including 2012-13, there have been five total sellouts at Moby, which helped make the decision to downsize a little in order to have beer sales. The last three years, CSU has averaged only about 3,700 fans per game, with early-season games usually very sparsely attended.
But, it’s a new era at Colorado State under Medved, starting the year 2-0 with perfect “Team Together” play. The Rams are sharing the ball very well — averaging 21 assists in the last two games — in a culture in which Medved respects all the players on his team. With Medved changing the culture and a new beer area, maybe crowds at Moby will grow once again.
Tomorrow, Colorado State hosts Montana State (1-2) at Moby with a 7 p.m. MST tip-off.