The University of Colorado announced Thursday that it sold out its intrasquad spring soccer game on April 22 — the latest proof of that the enormous influence that Deion Sander had with the Buffaloes less than four months since he was hired as head coach in early December.
Total attendance for the day will be over 45,000, beating the previous record of 17,800 spectators at the Boulder spring game in 2008.
The game will also be televised nationally by ESPN, the only spring game to be televised on ESPN’s main network. National champions Georgia Bulldogs are the only other program whose spring game is televised on another ESPN network, in their case on ESPN2.
Both developments — the sell-off and national attention — come after the Buffaloes finished 1-11 last year and fired their coach Karl Dorrell. Colorado replaced him with Sanders, the flamboyant former two-sport superstar who has done it ever since revised CU list and brought Millions of eyeballs on his programs via social media.
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The buffs even charged entry to this spring game ($10), unlike years before when a typical spring game could draw a few thousand fans. The university said attendance at the April 22 scrimmage will also surpass the total for the past nine Spring Games combined.
The ESPN crew covering the day’s action includes CU graduate broadcaster Chris Fowler, as well as 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III and colleague Quint Kessenich.
Though Folsom Field’s capacity is more than 50,000, some of CU’s premium event space is not being sold due to previous commitments, according to the university. The school also said a limited number of student tickets will remain available for current CU student sports pass holders.
Last year marked the 15th time in 17 years that the Buffs ended with a losing record in football. But times have changed under Sanders, aka Coach Prime.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado hype under Deion Sanders continues with sell-out spring game
Source : sports.yahoo.com