Prime Time in Buff Country
The Prime Effect, or Deionomics if you prefer, is real. Across the city and county, CU’s football program and its mediagenic coach are generating measurable economic impact and bringing national exposure to Boulder. Consider some of these off-the-gridiron stats for Coach Prime:
- Sales of Colorado Buffaloes gear soared 505% since December 2022, and September 2023 was the biggest sales month ever on the Buff’s website.
- A CU spokesperson confirmed a comment by Buffs chancellor Phil DiStefano that applications to the university are up approximately 40% over last year.
- Season tickets sold out for the 2023 season—the first time that has happened in 27 years.
- The CU-Oregon game drew 10.03 million viewers and was the most-watched football game in the nation. The CU-CSU game drew 9.3 million viewers, ranking the third most-watched football game this season.
- His sunglasses line generated almost $5 million in sales in three days after he was criticized by a rival head coach for wearing sunglasses in a press conference.
Clearly, Coach Prime is an economic driver—not just for his own brand but also for the university and the city of Boulder. According to the Visit Boulder, Convention and Visitor Bureau and Oxford-based Tourism Economics, each sold-out football game at CU contributes an estimated $17 million in revenue to the local economy. While it’s impossible to get a true, definitive measure of total economic impact for a fall football weekend, there’s no denying that the Buffs and Coach Prime are changing the game for businesses across the Boulder Valley.