Colorado State will have a losing record this season after five straight winning campaginsGETTY IMAGES
Colorado State's 3-7 record this season has prompted some fans to "threaten not to renew season tickets" for '19, but CSU AD Joe Parker believes that "one or two losing seasons isn’t going to have a significant impact on the university’s ability to pay off the bonds that financed the construction" of the $220M Canvas Stadium, according to Kelly Lyell of the Ft. Collins COLORADOAN. Parker said, "All the partnerships that we created around the venue are multi-year. Those aren’t going to be subjected, necessarily, to how people may or may not react to the team’s performance." Canvas Credit Union’s naming-rights deal will provide $2M a year through '32, "regardless of what the Rams’ record in any given season is." Same with the $3M CSU "receives each year from Learfield under a 12-year multimedia rights deal and the $667,000 a year an anonymous donor put up to place the name of legendary coach Sonny Lubick on the playing field for 30 years." CSU "issued revenue bonds to finance construction of the stadium with seating for 36,500 and total capacity of 41,000, that opened last fall." The annual payments on those bonds is $7.88M this year and rises to nearly $12.2M from '21-55. The expectation is the facility will "generate enough revenue annually to cover those payments." CSU President & Chancellor Tony Frank said that donor pledges of about $60M are "being deposited in a reserve fund that can be tapped to make up the difference if annual revenues fall short of the debt-service payments" (Ft. Collins COLORADOAN, 11/10).
