Our guide to Folsom Field in Boulder, home stadium of the Colorado Buffaloes, includes information on events, tickets, parking, nearby hotels and restaurants, seating capacity and more. Read on to find out how to get the most out of your gameday experience.

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To visitors, Boulder, Colorado, can mean a great many things: Large suburb of Denver, gateway to Rocky Mountain playgrounds, hub for arts and culture.

And of course, thanks to the presence of the University of Colorado at Boulder, it certainly deserves the “college town” description. That atmosphere becomes most prevalent on fall Saturdays when the Buffaloes football team is at home, as much of the city becomes a hive activity leading up to kickoff at Folsom Field.

The buzz around the Buffaloes took on new meaning for the 2023 season, after the program hired a celebrity coach in NFL legend Deion Sanders. With “Coach Prime” taking firm hold of the spotlight, Colorado quickly became one of college football’s glamour programs. The excitement only ratcheted up when the Buffs won their first three games in Sanders’ tenure.

The success around the field didn’t last that season — Colorado ended up not making a bowl game — but as long as Coach Prime is in town, Buffs home games will continue to be a massive event around town.

Whether you’re a longtime Buffs alum, intrigued by the hoopla that Coach Prime has brought or a fan of a visiting team, Folsom Field is well worth the visit, as much full of history and tradition as most other college football stadiums.

And Colorado, which moved back to the Big 12 Conference in 2024 after a decade-plus spent in the Pac-12, will continue to try to translate its notoriety in the headlines into sustained success on the field.

Looking for Folsom Field event tickets? Search events on Ticketmaster.

Getting to Folsom Field

The CU campus is located just about in the middle of the city of Boulder, with mostly residential neighborhoods surrounding it on all sides and Boulder’s downtown area located less than a mile to the north.

If your primary reason for visiting Boulder is to watch a Colorado football game at Folsom Field, then you’ll likely be looking for accommodations in town.

The downtown area is home to plenty of hotels, many of which are affiliated with major changes, but note that most of them are at least a mile-plus away from the Colorado campus, making them a long walk away from the stadium at best. (See below for a list of hotels near Folsom Field.)

Many visiting fans choose to stay in a hotel in Denver, about 45 minutes to the southeast, and then make the trek to Boulder for games at Folsom Field. The two cities are connected by U.S. Route 36, a highway that meets up with Interstate 25 a few miles north of downtown Denver.

Route 36 transforms from a highway to a surface street, 28th Street, just south of the CU campus and travels north-south through Boulder, passing to the east of the stadium. Expect the route to get plenty busy in the hours before kickoff and quite slow as the start time approaches.

If you’d prefer not to drive from Denver, there is a public transportation option. Denver RTD’s Flatiron Flyer line leaves from the Union Station bus depot in downtown Denver every 15-30 minutes (depending on time of day) and travels along Route 36. The journey to the CU campus takes about 45 minutes depending on traffic; the closest bus stop to Folsom Field is at Broadway and Euclid Street.

Parking at Folsom Field

Primary parking options near Folsom Field consist of lots and structures around the campus. The closest lots, including a sizable parking structure just to the east of the stadium, are for Colorado donors and season-ticket members.

General parking for Folsom Field events can be accessed at the Euclid Parking Garage, just north of Broadway, or the Regent Parking Garage, just west of 28th Street. Follow the link for a campus map showing parking options near Folsom Field.

For general stadium parking, the University of Colorado employs a text-to-pay system, meaning after you park and leave your car, you need to find signs with QR codes pointing to sites where you can pay using your phone. It costs $35 to park for Colorado football games. Failure to pay can result in you being assessed a fine of $100 or more.

A more affordable parking option for Folsom Field events is located about a mile and a half away, on the CU East Campus. Fans can park at a large surface lot at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Discovery Drive for $20, then take a free shuttle to the stadium. The same text-to-pay system is used here as well.

Boulder hotels near Folsom Field

• Basecamp Boulder – 0.4 miles away
• Boulder Guest House – 0.4 miles away
• Hyatt Place Boulder/Pearl Street – 1.3 miles away
Search for more Boulder hotels on Booking.com.

Map of the surrounding area

Check out rates for hotels near Folsom Field below.

Things to do around Folsom Field

Not surprisingly, the Colorado campus is a hub of activity on football game days, with students, alums and general football fans alike streaming toward the stadium.

Because Folsom Field is largely surrounded by campus buildings, there isn’t really a central parking lot filled with tailgaters. If you’re looking for that sort of scene, you’re best off just walking around campus visiting various parking lots and corners of campus. (Even better if you know a CU alum or long-time fan who can show you around!)

Colorado holds its official “Fan Fest” tailgate party on a large grassy space just south of the stadium, next to the Duane Physics and Astrophysics Building. The party is usually filled with food and drink vendors and picnic tables, where you can stretch out and watch the Buffs’ radio broadcasters host the pregame show live.

Also, if one of the sports networks’ popular pregame shows comes to town (a frequent occurrence during the first season of the Coach Prime era), the stage is typically set up nearby at Farrand Field, another large grassy area on campus.

Otherwise, if you’re just looking for a nice restaurant to have a pregame meal, you’ll be hard-pressed to find that on campus. Instead, head off campus to check out the handful of restaurants that line Broadway.

Or, venture into downtown Boulder proper, a prime spot for entertainment and nightlife whether school is in session or not. This area is also where you’ll find many of the hotels that are convenient to fans visiting Folsom Field.

If it’s early enough in the season, you’ll also be able to check out the Boulder Farmers’ Market, on 13th Street between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue. It’s held each Saturday until November and receives plenty of traffic from football fans on Buffs gamedays.

For more on visiting Boulder, check out our Denver sports travel guide.

Boulder restaurants near the stadium

• Doug’s Diner – American, 0.4 miles away
• Flower Child – American, 0.4 miles away
• Kalita Grill Greek Cafe – Mediterranean, 0.4 miles away
Search for more Boulder restaurants on Tripadvisor.

Watching a game at Folsom Field

With a capacity of just over 50,000, Folsom Field is fairly small compared to some of the mega-stadiums seen around college football, but it suits the Colorado football program just fine.

It’s apparent that Folsom Field has received a number of upgrades over the years, as evidenced by the somewhat awkward shape of its seating bowl. The horseshoe at the south end, with a ramp displaying the Colorado name at the bottom, gives away that the venue once held a running track — it was removed in 1967 when the field was lowered and 6,000 new seats were added.

Most fans enter the stadium on the south side, where there are high-capacity gates along Colorado Avenue (which is closed to vehicular traffic).

From there, you’ll have to know which side you’re seated on, because you won’t be able to go around should you reach the north end of one side and discover you should actually be on the other side. That’s because the north end is occupied by the Dal Ward Athletic Center, which has seating areas which overlook Folsom Field’s playing surface but is mostly occupied by boosters, donors and the like.

If you’re at Folsom Field to cheer on the visiting team, you’ll likely be seated in section 101 in the northwest corner. That’s near the visiting locker room and tunnel from which the team comes out onto the field.

The somewhat Frankensteinian nature of the venue pops up in other ways, too. You’ll quickly notice a large building appearing to block the concourse on the stadium’s west side. Called Balch Fieldhouse, you’ll find an indoor track inside, but on gamedays it serves as a nice gathering point for fans before and after games, as well as at halftime.

Numerous food and drink stands operate inside here, and there are plenty of restroom facilities. It also serves as a place to find respite from the elements on excessively hot or cold days.

The fieldhouse also serves as the home for luxury suites and premium seating that overlooks Folsom Field, as well as the stadium’s press boxes.

Be sure to be in your seats just before kickoff and train your eyes to the northeast corner of Folsom Field, where one of Colorado’s well-known traditions takes place: The entrance of Ralphie the Buffalo, a live mascot that comes running out onto the field.

Folsom Field’s seating area also got a major upgrade before the 2024 season, as a large videoboard was installed to bring it in line with modern stadiums around college football.

Food and drink at Folsom Field

In-stadium concessions at Folsom Field generally stick to sports-venue basics, with hot dogs, pizzas and popcorn prevalent. Burrito bowls and chicken-tender stands are some of the more adventurous options.

Head into Balch Fieldhouse for a sampling of your options, both for food, drinks and beer. You’ll also be able to find several food trucks positioned near the gates on the stadium’s south side.

Original publish date: September 27, 2024

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