BOULDER, Colo. — Coloradans thought they knew about the “Prime Effect.”
But after last weekend’s win over a ranked team on the road, Boulder and Buffs fans are learning exactly what kind of an impact this new head coach and his team will have on their community.
“I’ve never seen people who, hours after our game, are still coming in and chanting our songs,” said Lucy Coe, an assistant manager at Avanti, located right off Pearl Street in Boulder. “This weekend is going to be interesting!”
Coe, who just graduated from CU this year, has worked at the bar/restaurant for three years – and through some difficult football seasons. She expects this year will be very different. Ahead of Saturday’s first home game against rival Nebraska, Avanti has pulled extra staff from its Denver location, extended its operating hours and ordered plenty of booze for the expected crowds.
“I’ve never seen a liquor order like what we had this week,” Coe laughed. “This is new, this is so exciting for us, it's game-changing for us, for sure.”
She added, “It’s going to be chaos, but it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be good money and everybody is excited to watch what Prime does with this team.”
One block away, The Post Chicken and Beer restaurant hosts a weekly coach’s show with the head coach.
“We have him in here weekly, he talks to the crowd, anyone who wants to come in,” said Director of Operations, Harrison Ebert. “The week has been pretty good for us. Last weekend we did a great amount of business over the weekend when TCU was playing, the excitement and buzz around town was amazing.”
A remarkable change compared to last season, business owners said.
“We’re not going to speak about last year’s football season. That one doesn’t exist,” Ebert joked. “We knew this was going to be a bigger year for us. So, we’ve got bigger crowds, bigger staffs on, better promotions. We’ve also increased the amount [of products] that were buying, which is pretty fantastic for vendors.”
Even on campus, business is booming. The CU student bookstore is moving a lot of merchandise inspired by Coach Prime’s catchphrases.
“Here we have our 'I Ain't Hard 2 Find' sweatshirts and our hoodies. We’ve got some fun cowboy hats,” said McKenna King, Associate Buyer and Merchandising Coordinator for the bookstore. “We got our 'We Coming’ sweatshirts here.”
While fall and football season is usually a busy time for school merchandise, McKenna said this year was extra busy.
“We’ve been getting lots of shipments from the warehouse. We've been -- all day every day – trying to get stuff out of boxes onto the floor so our customers have stuff to choose from. It's been constant!”
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