DENVER (KDVR) — For the first time since 2019, opening day at Coors Field is drawing tens of thousands of baseball fans to Denver’s LoDo neighborhood.
“We know we haven’t had an opening day as big as today for two years just because of covid, the pandemic so we’re looking to bring in customers,” Elizabeth Reyes said.
Reyes and her parents run a food truck called Chivis Tacos. They have only been in business for about a month. They parked on Blake Street Friday morning, with hopes of cashing in on the crowds.
“We’re hoping with the fact that the pandemic opened everything up, rules are kind of relaxed and people are out now, we’ll bring in more business,” Reyes said.
Across the sidewalk, 1UP arcade bar is celebrating its 11th anniversary, which coincides with opening day.
“Oh man, it’s like our biggest day of the year,” owner Jourdan Adler said. “We’re just so excited to be back open and have a full-strength Opening Day.”
Last year, Adler said 1UP was not allowed to welcome more than 40 customers at a time.
“Not only did we have, obviously COVID, but we had the restrictions of not having anybody have the ability to walk around, play games, we weren’t allowed to turn our games back on when the casinos were allowed to have their slot machines. We were like last man on the totem pole so this is pretty epic to have everybody in here,” Adler said.
He says after a two-year hiatus, planning for opening day is tough. However, he believes they are expecting more than a thousand customers throughout the day.
“We’ve got our pinball tech here and our bar staff to get totally ready for this day so it takes an army,” he said.
Aside from the baseball game, Adler believes the weather will also contribute to a successful weekend for area businesses.
“And then tomorrow, close to 80 (degrees), we couldn’t ask for anything more. I think all of us business owners are so excited,” he said.