Top 12 Pro Sports Experiences in Colorado

While the Denver, CO area is home to eight professional sports teams, the state has four additional teams in Loveland, Colorado Springs, Trinidad, and Grand Junction. The sports teams range from major, minor and independent league baseball, major and minor league hockey, soccer, football, basketball, and both indoor and outdoor lacrosse.

When arriving via airplane at DIA and boarding the tram to get to the terminal and baggage claim area, you can hear Denver’s mayor, Michael Hancock, proudly announcing there are eight professional sports in the Denver area.

And the nice thing, the professional teams provide entertainment all year long (except the NHL this 2012 year – though there is minor league hockey for your pleasure).

1. Pepsi Center - Home of the Denver Nuggets

   

   Attending a Nuggets game at the Pepsi Center is always fun and designed with the fan in mind first.

   The great atrium entryway includes around 10 large television screens that show other games, pregame coverage or live coverage of the night's game for the late arrivals. There are no bad seats in the Pepsi Center. Even from the top row, players are easy to make out and there are no obstructed views.

2. Coors Field - Home of the Colorado Rockies

   

   Denver became the first city in the Rocky Mountain region to host a Major League Baseball team when the MLB awarded them the expansion Rockies in 1993. Therefore, Coors Field (1995) became the first MLB stadium in the Mountain Time zone as well.

3. Sports Authority Field at Mile High - Home of the Denver Broncos

   

   For the first 50 years of the Denver Broncos, they called one stadium home, Mile High (originally Bears' Stadium). Since 2001, the Broncos have played at Sports Authority Field at Mile High previously known as Invesco Field and is commonly still known as ‘Mile High’.

   Of course, the newest star of the Denver Broncos this season is Peyton Manning so finding a ticket to a game might prove challenging.

4. Pepsi Center - Home of the Colorado Avalanche

   

   Opened in 1999, the Pepsi Center doesn't seem to have aged at all, as its modern design of smooth curves juxtaposed with a sharp angles jutting away from the main structure create the great atrium. The glass facades invite any and all passersby to peek inside of the Pepsi Center and they show off the interesting interior of the arena.

5. Denver Coliseum - Home of the Denver Cutthroats

   

   The Denver Coliseum opened in 1952 and is celebrating its 60th year of operation in 2012. A part of that celebration is introducing a new Central Hockey League team – the Denver Cutthroats. With the NHL lockout this 2012 season, do venture to a game at the Denver Coliseum to get your hockey fix or just for a sports and entertainment night out with family and friends.

6. Budweiser Events Center - Home of the Colorado Eagles

   

   Budweiser Event Center, known to locals as "the Keg" due to its name and look of a keg on its side, is located just outside of Loveland, Colorado and sits just east of I-25. The Keg's location gives people from the cities of Loveland, Greeley and Fort Collins an opportunity to attend games, as it's less than a half an hour drive from any of the three towns. Plus, it's only an hour from Denver and Cheyenne, in a perfect location for thousands of fans to get there from all around.

   The Colorado Eagles will be hosting the 2013 ECHL All-Star Game, scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013.

7. Pepsi Center - Home of the Colorado Mammoth

   

   Founded in 2003, the Colorado Mammoth are celebrating their 10th season in the NLL this year (2012). They won the NLL Championship in 2006 and have won their division championship in two additional years.

   The Mammoth put on a good show; it is all very well coordinated. There are the introductions with motorcycles on the floor and smoke and fire when the Mammoth players are announced. There are the young and pretty Wild Bunch dancers entertaining the crowd during breaks in the game.

8. Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Home of the Colorado Rapids

   

   Dick's Sporting Goods Park is more than just a professional sports stadium, it's a soccer mecca.

   The atmosphere at Dick's Sporting Goods Park is cool and unique because it is part of the massive complex where many varieties of people and skill levels come to congregate. Then, after their amateur games, youth and adults alike can take in a professional, Major League contest.

9. Sam Suplizio Field - Home of the Grand Junction Rockies

   

   Beginning with the 2012 season, the Pioneer League team of the Colorado Rockies moved to Grand Junction, CO, was renamed to the Grand Junction Rockies and now plays at Sam Suplizio Field.

   Besides the Grand Junction Rockies, Sam Suplizio Field is also home to the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks and the Junior College World Series.

10. Security Service Field - Home of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox

    

    Security Service Field is the perfect name for the Rockies AAA minor league ballpark.

    Colorado Springs, CO is home of the United States Air Force Academy, and many Cadets come from all across America to learn how to serve, protect and secure our country from military threats. Beyond the young Cadets though, many other veterans and more experienced military men and women live in Colorado's second biggest city. No doubt about it, this is a military town.

11. Sports Authority Field at Mile High - Home of the Denver Outlaws

    

    Denver was offered a major league lacrosse expansion team in 2006 and the Denver Outlaws played their first game on May 20, 2006 at Invesco Field at Mile High (now known as Sports Authority Field at Mile High.) The Outlaws have continuously broken MLL attendance records throughout its short history and have made it to the division and/or conference finals in each year of their existence. The popularity of the sport seems to be growing in the area especially with the kids.

12. Central Park - Home of the Trinidad Triggers

    

    The first season (2012) for the Trinidad Triggers to be a part of the Independent Pecos League of Professional Baseball was this past season. Taken from their website, the Pecos League “operates in cities in desert mountain regions throughout New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado … players come from all over the US and the world and are a combination of rising stars, falling stars, shooting stars, and athletes with stars in their eyes.”