Short Term Effects
Local Business
- Coors Field attracted an average of over 30,000 people per game this year, which is a golden opportunity for business. As people come through before and after, they often stop at local bars and food chains to eat and drink. When I went and visited one of these places, Brothers BBQ, a waitress there talked to me about this. She said that before and after baseball games they are really busy, especialy after games. One of my classmates, Jake Mager, did a project on restuarnts and his research doubles on mine. He interviewed an employee at another bar near Coors Field, and he said that before and after games is when their best business is. This is enough to say that Coors Field is great for local business, which is great for the economy.
- The benfits of the economy come directly from the numerous fans coming through on gameday. As fans from all over Colorado as well as some out of the state, they also will often spend money while in Denver. This money is usally spent on parking, food, drinks, and other items, which puts more money into the Denver economy.
- With so many people coming through the LoDo area before and after games, traffic congestion can become a problem. There are many people who come through Denver at one time, and it usally slows commuting times. Blake Street also closes two hours before the game, which can cause more problems. Parking can be rough too, unless you show up early to the ballpark. This is an unfortunate part of any sporting event, but the street layout of Denver can cause problems that other cities don't have and make commuting times even slower. They combat this using public transportation and encouraging people to either show up early or ride a bike, both of which can help the flow of traffic. No matter what though, this amount of people are going to cause lots of both vehicle and human traffic.
- Safety usually isn't a big problem in LoDo directly before and after games, but if you stay too late after, drunkiness can cause safty issues around the area because of the many different bars. During game and travel times though, the area is relatively safe as cops direct traffic around the area and the large amount of people keeps criminal activity minimal. Also, ever since the transformation of the LoDo area the crime and fire rate have gone way down. You shouldn't have to worry about safety when visting Coors Field, but if you stay too late after words you might want to be more cautious.