Why the Broncos are only allowing 3,000 fans into training camp practices

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Training camp practices will look a little bit different in 2023. 

The Broncos are allowing 3,000 fans into each practice this year. On a typical day, that’s about how many fans you would have seen on the hill in years past, but occasionally the crowds grew bigger, like for the first practice of camp or for joint practices with other teams.

On the first Saturday of last year’s training camp, the Broncos more than doubled their upcoming capacity, with 7,121 attendees who wanted to see Russell Wilson in a Broncos uniform.

7️⃣,1️⃣2️⃣1️⃣ strong 🤯#BroncosCountry, we loved celebrating #BackTogetherSaturday with you! pic.twitter.com/Et9beo3v6u

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) July 30, 2022

That tweet, as was first reported by CBS News Denver, was sent to the South Metro Fire Rescue last July, and the department later found that the Broncos were in violation of their occupancy limit. 

When the Broncos and architecture firm Sink Combs Dethlef, LLC submitted permit requests to Arapahoe County outlining construction plans for Pat Bowlen Field House in 2013, they included a maximum occupancy of 3,200 people for the berm above the field.

Here’s a zoomed-in version of the document in which a 3,200-person capacity is noted:

“The Broncos, when they submitted the permit for the facility—which was the indoor training facility and the outdoor field—that permit had an occupant load seating area of 3,200 occupants,” Anders Nelson, a spokesperson for Arapahoe County, told DNVR. “That’s what is on file with zoning and the county. That’s what the fire marshall looks at. So the facility was never built to hold more than (about) 3,000.”

The Broncos are allowing 3,000 fans into practice this year, which is less than the 3,200-person capacity for the seating area. But media members watched offseason practices from the berm this spring, and they could be placed in the same area again for training camp. Staff will also be on the berm. Together, they could fill out the allotted capacity.

The Broncos could, in theory, increase their max occupancy, but they haven’t modified their plan since submitting the paperwork to the county nearly a decade ago.

“There’s nothing stopping them from having a larger capacity, other than they’d have to build it, or they could have a professional come in and have proof that what they currently have could hold a larger capacity than 3,200,” Nelson said. “None of those things have happened.”

The capacity limit is set to ensure safety in the event of an emergency. The fire marshall has final say when setting the max occupancy, according to Nelson.

Now that they are facing restrictions to crowd size, the Broncos could look into increasing the capacity.

It’s easy to see how the Broncos could have outgrown their documented capacity. For nearly a decade after training camp returned to Denver from Greeley in 2003, a 3,200-person limit wouldn’t have come into play.

First-round pick Tim Tebow drew a record crowd of 3,103 fans to his first training camp practice in 2010. Peyton Manning’s first practice as a Bronco a few years later drew more than 4,300. Given that the Broncos were able to fit more than 7,000 people on the berm last year, those earlier crowds were unlikely to draw any suspicion either from inside the building or from the fire marshall. And it’s even less likely anybody was perusing the 583-page Certificate of Occupancy that included the limit.

The Broncos also apply for special parking permits because training camp crowds overflow their lots. The overflow lot is located at Dove Valley Regional Park, across the street from the Broncos’ facilities. The park is currently under heavy construction, so using it as overflow parking this year would probably be out of the question. According to a DNVR source with knowledge of the situation, the construction in the park may have factored into the decision to enforce the capacity limit.

Now fans are feeling the pinch. Within an hour of the 3,000 free tickets per practice becoming available Wednesday morning, three of the 14 open practices sold out. A few hours later, a fourth sold out. The 10 practices with tickets remaining as of Wednesday evening are all between Mondays and Thursdays, with no weekend availabilities remaining.