Coldest games in Colorado sports history—where Tuesday’s Rapids match ranks
Feb 19, 2025, 8:31 AM | Updated: 10:20 am
Few people willingly spent more than a minute outside in Denver on Tuesday, with a blisteringly cold high of 14 degrees that quickly turned into a zero-degree night—and yet one of Colorado’s sports teams hosted an outdoor game that some brave fans actually showed up to.
Playing for club, cup and continental acclaim, the Colorado Rapids squared off with LAFC in the Concacaf Champions Cup aiming to win a tournament that would earn them the title of the best club in North America. The mid-February home match in Commerce City was unsurprisingly not a pleasant weather day, but it wasn’t the coldest one in Colorado sports history since the Rapids have twice played on colder days.
According to 9News Meteorologist Chris Bianchi, Tuesday’s contest was not the coldest despite the zero-degree temperature recorded at Denver International Airport at kickoff time, where the National Weather Service officially monitors our weather.
“The Central Park observation site is more accurate for Dicks Sporting Goods Park and it was 5° at kickoff,” Bianchi shared with Denver Sports.
That means the mark for the coldest game (by start time) in Colorado sports history stands at 3 degrees. The Rapids have kicked off with that temperature on both Feb. 23, 2022 and Feb. 20, 2018. Each of those games came in Concacaf events, an organizing body that seems to not understand how cold Colorado is in the second month of the year. At any rate, the mercury reading means the Rapids match on Tuesday was likely the third-coldest outdoor sporting event in Colorado sports history.
That means the coldest game played for each of Colorado’s major outdoor teams stands as follows.
Coldest weather games in Colorado Sports
Colorado Rapids: 3° (2/23/22)
Denver Broncos: 7° (12/10/72)
Colorado Buffaloes: 12° (11/2/91)
Colorado State Rams: 18° (11/16/96)
Colorado Rockies: 23° (4/23/13)
DIA air temp was 0° at @ColoradoRapids kickoff last night, but 5° at closer/more accurate Central Park weather obs site.
My input would be 5° would be the official kickoff temp, narrowly missing the record. Balmy!
Nice win, Rapids!#COwx pic.twitter.com/hHcl0BcR9c
— Chris Bianchi (@BianchiWeather) February 19, 2025
Of each team’s coldest games, the Broncos are the only ones to win—beating the Chargers 38-13. Technically the Rapids won one of theirs but lost that game in penalty kicks which ended their run in the tournament. Likewise, matched up against a cold-weather team last night the Rapids got two goals from Djordje Mihailovic, including a screaming free kick, to beat a southern California crew.
An absolute stunner by Mihailovic to extend the lead! ⚽💥#ChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/2Yf0gal9p0
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) February 19, 2025
