DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup victory parade could be one of the largest Denver has ever hosted.
Stanley Cup parades have drawn anywhere from 100,000 to 2 million people. Denver’s is likely to be on the smaller end of that range but still produce one of Civic Center Park’s largest crowds ever.
Previous records are spotty and in some cases contested. In any case, the Stanley Cup parade is set to be either the second- or third-largest gathering at Denver’s Civic Center Park.
To date, the most-attended event in media reports has been the 2016 Denver Broncos parade celebrating their Super Bowl victory. The Denver Police Department and other city officials said over 1 million people attended. An estimated 550,000 people attended the Taste of Colorado event in 2011.
People have contested the Broncos parade numbers, however. Student reporter Tim Locke consulted four experts for an article in the Metro State University of Denver. A crowd event security specialist estimated closer to 198,000 people in attendance from an analysis of aerial photos.
If that’s the case, Thursday’s parade will rank second.