Bronco-mania, CSU-style.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: SPORTS biz

THE STRATEGY ADOPTED by the marketing team at Colorado Slate University for the upcoming football season is built around good old horse sense.

Or in this case, Boise State Broncos sense.

Within a realigned Mountain West Conference, an Oct. 15 game at last season's No. 9-ranked Broncos is the marquee home game for the Rams, and CPU knows it. So the athletic department has rigged an interesting preseason ploy around the big game.

Here are your choices for getting a ticket: Be a CSU full-time student, become a member of the Ram Club booster group, make a group buy for 50 people or more (party!) or buy a season-ticket package or multi-game "mini-plan."

What you can't do for now is fire up your Internet connection and buy a solo ticket to the game. CSU opened up single-game sales July 11, but CSU's matchup against the mighty Broncos, which joined a reconstituted Mountain West Conference, is excluded until Aug. 15. Season-ticket: holders, on the other hand, will get reserved seats for the Broncos as part of their overall package, which includes seven home games this year versus six last season. Prices are the same as 2010 a nod to the moribund economy.

Will the stunt work to pull in more multiage buyer? Ben Chulick hopes so. The CSU athletic department's director of marketing thinks the allure of Boise State and its Heisman-candidate quarterback Kellen Moore is so strong that it could compel fence sitters to step up.

"The strategy is to use that game as leverage to get some of those people to purchase season tickets or the Mini-Plan," he says. Chulick's department also will stage what it calls "Operation Sellout," an effort to recruit local businesses as allies in making sure Hughes Stadium is at its 32,000-person capacity for the 4 p.m. game.

"We're going to do everything we can." Chulick says. "The more people we have, the better it impacts the economy."

As Chulick points out, CSU also is being more creative this year with Mini-Plans. For example, one of them pairs the CU-CSU Rocky Mountain Showdown at Invesco Field with CSU's Stet. 10 home opener (Northern Colorado) for $70, or $10 off the combined face value. And the Mountain West Mini-Plan offers sideline tickets to Boise State, San Diego State and Air Force for $90.

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The more inventive salesmanship is designed...