The fourth City for Champions project; the Colorado Sports and Event Centers are comprised of two separate sports venues near the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum – one outdoor and one indoor – intended to attract visitors to Colorado Springs. Ed Robson Arena and Weidner Field further solidify the city’s vision as Olympic City USA, providing unique venues to host the growing momentum of a strong and vibrant tourism industry.

 The two facilities are state of the art, multi-purpose venues designed to host professional, Olympic, and amateur sporting events as well as entertainment and cultural events. The downtown stadium is the permanent home of the Colorado Springs Switchbacks while the event center is the new home of the Colorado College ice hockey team.

Funding – The State RTA funding will be approximately

$27.7 million over 30 years. Two-thirds of the revenue, approximately $18.5M, will be dedicated to the outdoor stadium and will support a bond of approximately $10M. One-third of the revenue, or approximately $9.2M, will be dedicated to the indoor arena and will be distributed to Colorado College as the revenue is received. Private investment from the project partners will make up the difference to complete the projects.

Downtown Stadium – Weidner Field

The Downtown Stadium – Weidner Field is located at the CityGate property bordered by Cimarron to the North, Moreno to the South, Sierra Madre to the west and Sahwatch to the east.

The stadium, containing 8,000 spectator seats for sporting events, is a multi-use facility which can accommodate a wide variety of sporting and entertainment events. Capacity for concerts, graduations, and other events will be 15,000. The stadium is constructed together with a mixed- use residential and commercial development in partnership with Weidner Apartment Homes.

Weidner received naming rights to the stadium.

The Ragain family that owns the Switchbacks and Weidner Apartment Homes of suburban Seattle, whose founder, Dean Weidner, grew up in Colorado Springs partnered to pay roughly two-thirds of the cost for what would become Weidner Field. They anticipated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of economic activity and new development in the area because of the stadium — from spending at restaurants and bars, to construction of apartments and hotels, to the makeover of aging buildings dotting southwest downtown’s landscape.

Weidner Field was funded with about $13 million in state sales tax funds; the Switchbacks and Weidner Apartment Homes agreed to pay most of the remainder of the project’s cost, which was $47 million.

Indoor Event Center – Edward J. Robson Arena

The Edward J. Robson Arena is located on the block bordered by Nevada Avenue, Cache La Poudre, Tejon and Dale Street.

The Robson Arena has become known as a premier destination for CC’s Division 1 competition as well as national and international events with our Olympic partners. The new venue has joined the Fine Arts Center in serving as a gateway to a vibrant downtown corridor, drawing even more visitors to the Pikes Peak region and contributing to its economic strength.

The arena is unique in size and scope and optimized for high-level athletic competition due to its comprehensive sports-medicine facility, flexible floor space, and experienced staff. It encompasses competition space, seating, locker and restrooms, concessions, storage, in-house TV production capability, and administrative space. It accommodates seating for approximately 3,400 attendees. The facility can host ice- based and multiple other sports. Most of the other athletics facilities on the Colorado College campus are northwest of the arena. The college also is making these facilities available to the C4C initiative in conjunction with the Colorado Springs Sports Authority.

The arena is part of CC’s master plan approved by the college’s Board of Trustees in 2015. The multipurpose space offers a wealth of opportunities not only for Colorado College, but also for the Colorado Springs community and the larger Pikes Peak region.

Funding for the arena came from a $12 million gift by Edward J. Robson, other private donations, and through the C4C initiative awarded to the city through the state’s Regional Tourism Act.

Named in his honor, Ed Robson, founder of Robson Communities, Inc., played hockey for the Colorado College Tigers. Ed Robson Arena enables the college hockey team to play games on campus for the first time in its history