Post by Sidni Standard | Commonstock | Deion Sanders is single-handedly BOOSTING the Boulder, CO economy

“No one man should have all that power” —Kanye West

Who would’ve thought that one man could have such a large impact on college football, much less an entire economy in Colorado?!

If you’re wondering who that man is, his name is Deion Sanders, and he’s the head football coach at the University of Colorado at Boulder Buffaloes. When he initially signed on to be the head coach, they told him that they wouldn’t be able to pay him as much as most coaches in the NCAA, and despite that, he took on the job. The year before, he was the head coach at HBCU Jackson State, but had grander ambitions. Not only did he leave Jackson State, but he took his son Shedeur Sanders with him, and completely overhauled the Boulder Buffaloes team, in which he had 86 new players out of about 110 total players.

Deion Sanders—or Coach Prime, as he’s called—is no stranger to football or the sports world in general. From his Hall of Fame performances in the NFL and the NCAA to his MLB World Series appearance, Sanders has cemented his status as an elite athlete. For context, the Boulder Buffaloes went 1-11 last year and were never seen as a real competitor within the Division I Pac-12. However, for the first time in 27 years, Sanders has Colorado (3-0) ranked No. 19 in the country and turned the Buffaloes into must-see TV as he and his son, Heisman Trophy candidate Shedeur Sanders, find ways to use the media to hype their games.

But let’s get to the numbers… what has been the economic impact of Coach Prime on the college as well as Boulder so far?

According to the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., university spokesperson Steve Hurlbert said the school tried to determine the equivalent ad value of the earned media coverage of the football program since the start of the season. The number Colorado came up with? Almost $91 million. That’s on top of the record-breaking ticket and merchandise sales at Colorado, with the school reporting an 892% increase in team store revenue this year and a 2,544% surge year-over-year for the month of September.

But it gets even better... Not only has the economic impact to the college been around $91 million thus far, there's also been positive economic impacts to the local economy of Boulder, CO.

Restaurants, hotels and retail businesses are getting a boost from the Buffaloes. The home opener on Sept. 9 vs. Nebraska (a 36-14 Colorado win) delivered the Boulder area $17 million in direct and indirect impact on the community, according to Hurlbert. That’s up 70% from Colorado’s game on the same weekend in 2022.

It ultimately pays to have a winner through and through on your team, and the University of Colorado at Boulder as well as the Boulder community at large are feeling that impact of that both economically & energetically. One thing that’s extremely relevant and important to note is the role culture plays in commerce.

Culture drives commerce. And that’s precisely what Deion Sanders has brought to Colorado: a fuel injection of new meaning that is driving cultural consumption. Cultural consumption denotes the act of purchasing brands and branded products because of their symbolic value, not just their functional benefits. With Coach Prime, the Colorado Buffaloes aren’t just a football team; they mean something far more now. They symbolize something more than a geography or institution. They are now embodying everything Coach Prime himself stands for. Or, better said, they now symbolize what Coach Prime ‘stands in’ for: confidence.

Have you been watching the Boulder Buffaloes dominating on the football field?