Get Your Green On

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a Colorado State fan.  I wear green on fan Friday, my sister and I have season tickets for Volleyball, Football and Basketball and we travel—a lot.  We’ve been following various CSU teams as they play in other communities for a couple of decades.  We are headed to Iowa for the football game this weekend.

These trips to other college-based towns have always been a great opportunity to see and learn about new ideas and different ways of creating community.  I’ve had the tremendous luck to get to visit towns and cities across the country from California to Alabama.  Each community has been an interesting mix of economy, community and university.

In case you think, even in a very diversified economy, that a University doesn’t make a difference, consider these data points from the most recent economic analysis of the Colorado State University System:

  • 17,300 jobs provide direct and indirect city employment in Fort Collins.
  • Each year, nearly 10,000 out-of-state students attend a CSU System school and contribute to the state’s economy – plus, the three campuses attract visitors, conferences and tourism travel.
  • The CSU System students spend more then $435 million on goods and services in local Colorado communities every year.

Want to learn more about the economic impact, check out this site:  https://csusystem.edu/economic-impact/.

Since we’re talking about being a CSU fan—whether that is of the arts, sports or the economy, I want to remind you that because of your Chamber membership, there is an opportunity for you to purchase discounted tickets to CSU Volleyball and Football games.  The promo code is FCCC.  Visit csurams.com/promocode To purchase tickets and join me in our celebration of the University.

I look forward to learning about Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and will let you know if they are doing something amazing we need to learn from!


Written by Ann Hutchison, President & CEO

September 21, 2021
For comments and questions about this blog, please email Ann at [email protected].