Sports in Denver


The city of Denver, Colorado, and the wider Denver metropolitan area is home to many sports teams.

Table

The following table shows sports teams in the Denver metropolitan area that average more than 12,000 fans per game:
ClubSportLeagueVenueCapacityAttendanceTitlesSince
Denver BroncosFootballNFLEmpower Field at Mile High76,16976,9393 1960
Colorado BuffaloesFootballNCAA D1Folsom Field 53,60037,7781 1890
Colorado RockiesBaseballMLBCoors Field50,39831,33401993
Colorado AvalancheIce hockeyNHLPepsi Center18,00716,1762 1995
Colorado RapidsSoccerMLSDick's Sporting Goods Park18,06115,6571 1996
Denver NuggetsBasketballNBAPepsi Center19,11514,70001967
Colorado MammothLacrosseNLLPepsi Center18,00712,8151 2003

Major league professional teams

Denver is the smallest of the 13 U.S. cities with teams from four major sports.
The Denver Broncos of the National Football League have drawn crowds of over 70,000 since their AFL origins in the early 1960s at Mile High Stadium and continue to draw fans today to their current home Empower Field at Mile High. The Broncos have sold out every home game since 1970. The Broncos last championship was in 2016, defeating the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. In total, the Broncos have advanced to the Super Bowl eight times and won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999, and again in 2015.
In the 1980s and 90s, one of the top priorities of former Mayor Federico Peña was bringing Major League Baseball to the city. In 1993, the MLB awarded an expansion team to Denver and they were named the Colorado Rockies. Mile High Stadium was home to the Rockies from 1993 to 1995 while Coors Field was under construction. They appeared in their first World Series in 2007 after winning the championship of the National League, where they were swept by the Boston Red Sox of the American League in four games.
The Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association play at the Pepsi Center. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association but changed its name to the Denver Rockets before the first season. They changed its name to the Denver Nuggets in 1974. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA-NBA merger. It has not made an appearance in an NBA Finals since joining the NBA.
Denver is home to the Colorado Avalanche, a National Hockey League team that relocated from Quebec City in 1995. They have won two Stanley Cups in 1996 and in 2001 while playing in Denver, and they also play at Pepsi Center. The Avalanche played the Detroit Red Wings in the first ever outdoor professional hockey game in Denver on Saturday, February 27, 2016 at Coors Field.
The Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer play at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer-specific stadium in the Denver suburb of Commerce City. The Rapids were one of the ten founding teams of Major League Soccer that began play in 1996, and initially played at what was then known as Invesco Field at Mile High before moving into their current home in 2007. The Rapids won the MLS Cup in 2010. The Rapids' main rival is the Real Salt Lake, and the two teams play every year for the Rocky Mountain Cup. Dick's Sporting Goods Park has also hosted several international soccer matches, including U.S. national team qualifying matches for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

Other professional teams

TeamLeagueVenue
Colorado MammothNational Lacrosse LeaguePepsi Center
Colorado RaptorsMajor League RugbyInfinity Park
Denver OutlawsMajor League LacrosseEmpower Field at Mile High

Notes:
Furniture Row Racing is a NASCAR team and fields the #78 Chevrolet SS for Martin Truex, Jr. The team is owned and sponsored by the U.S. furniture store chain Furniture Row, and is the only NASCAR team headquartered in Colorado.

College sports teams

Notes:

Past teams