Every Rams home Saturday, the same question comes up in group chats around Loveland: does everybody drive their own car up US-287 and fight for a parking pass, or does the group ride up together? Canvas Stadium doesn't hand out a dedicated motorcoach curb the way some bigger venues do — every space, in every lot, has to be bought in advance through the athletics ticket office. That single fact changes how a group of 20 or 40 should plan the trip, and it's the reason a charter bus or party bus rental out of Loveland is worth a second look before kickoff.
Below is what's actually published by Colorado State Athletics and CSU Parking & Transportation Services about getting a group to Canvas Stadium (751 W Pitkin St, Fort Collins, CO 80523) — which lots exist, what a charter bus does about the fact that none of them are reserved for buses, what the bag policy actually says, and how far the drive really is from Loveland. Then we'll walk through vehicle sizes and how to get pricing from Lovelandminibuscompany.com in about a minute.
Why Rent a Bus to Canvas Stadium?
Canvas Stadium sells every parking space as a season pass or a single-game pass through its ticketing partner, not at the gate. That means a caravan of five or six cars from Loveland needs five or six passes bought ahead of time, and if the group didn't plan that far out, there's no fallback lot to buy into on a Saturday morning. A charter bus sidesteps the whole system: it doesn't need a parking pass to drop a group at the curb and pull away, so the group's plans aren't dependent on whether passes are still available for that particular Rams game.
It also solves the more ordinary problem — getting 20, 30, or 40 people from Loveland to Fort Collins on the same schedule. Instead of a string of cars spread out on US-287 or Taft Hill Road, everyone leaves from one pickup point in Loveland and arrives together. A Loveland sporting event bus rental through Lovelandminibuscompany.com covers Rams football, and the same logic applies to CSU volleyball and basketball at Moby Arena next door.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at Canvas Stadium
Colorado State Athletics is direct about this: parking is required for every football, volleyball, women's basketball, and men's basketball game, and single-game passes are sold through the Canvas Stadium event parking page ahead of the date rather than at the lot. There is no walk-up parking booth and no bus-only zone published for game days. What that means for a private bus is straightforward: it doesn't sit in a lot at all unless the group wants it to.
It pulls up curbside near the stadium's Pitkin Street entrance, lets the group off, and either stages nearby or loops back for the agreed pickup window — no pass required for a vehicle that isn't parking.
Canvas Stadium Parking, Lot by Lot
The lot immediately next to the stadium is Canvas Stadium Lot 240, which CSU Parking & Transportation Services lists as paved, self-park, and ADA accessible, with mobile passes accepted through ParkMobile's Canvas Stadium (Lot 240) listing and a stop on the campus's Around the Horn shuttle. Two parking structures a short walk away also sell hourly and permit parking on football Saturdays: the Lake Street Garage and the South College Garage, both listed on the CSU Canvas Stadium parking page. Lake Street Garage is roughly a 9-minute, 0.4-mile walk from the stadium on flat ground — workable for a couple headed to their seats, considerably less workable for a group of 30 trying to stay together before kickoff.
The RV & Oversized Vehicle Lot at Moby Arena
CSU does publish one lot specifically built around larger vehicles: overnight parking for RVs and oversized vehicles in the Moby Arena lot (Lot 195). A single reservation, made in advance through the CSU football parking & tailgating page, holds five spaces at eight feet each — 40 feet total — on a first-come, first-served basis, with entry opening at 4:00 p.m. the Friday before a home game and extra spaces available to purchase if the group needs more room. General overnight parking across the surrounding lots opens at 5:30 p.m. the night before kickoff.
That's the closest thing CSU has to a published oversized-vehicle policy, and for a group planning to stage a bus on campus overnight before an early kickoff, it's worth a call to CSU Parking & Transportation Services at (970) 491-7041 to confirm placement for a charter bus specifically, since the published reservation is written around RVs.
Getting from Loveland to Canvas Stadium
Canvas Stadium is about 14 miles north of Loveland. The fastest route, by Google's own routing, runs north on N Taft Ave and continues on S Shields Street straight into the west side of campus — roughly 24 minutes with no traffic. The more familiar route up US-287 (which becomes College Avenue through Fort Collins) covers about 13 miles in a similar 25 minutes on a normal day, but College Avenue is also the street Fort Collins routes most of its own game-day traffic onto, so it slows first and clears last on a Saturday afternoon.
Shields Street, one block west of the stadium, tends to move better because it isn't the corridor everyone defaults to.
None of that route-picking is the group's problem once a bus is booked. The route gets chosen the day of, based on whichever corridor is actually moving, and a bus large enough for the whole group means one vehicle threading that decision instead of six or eight cars all guessing differently and losing each other at the first light on College Avenue.
Canvas Stadium Charter Bus Rental vs. Driving, MAX Transit, and Rideshare
Not every group needs a charter bus for a Rams game — a couple with a Lake Street Garage pass already bought is fine on their own. Here's an honest look at the options for anyone leaving from Loveland.
| Option | What it actually costs | Group stays together? | Needs a parking pass? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charter bus or party bus | One flat rate split across the group | Yes, one pickup, one drop | No — drops curbside and pulls away | 15–56 people traveling together |
| Driving in from Loveland | Gas plus a pre-purchased pass per car | No — separate cars, separate ETAs | Yes, bought in advance per space | 1–4 people, pass already secured |
| Transfort MAX BRT | Per-ride fare | Only if everyone's on the same run | No, but doesn't reach Loveland | Groups already staying in Fort Collins |
| Rideshare app | Per car, plus a post-game surge window | No — split across several cars | No | Small groups, short notice |
The MAX bus rapid transit line, run by Transfort, connects Midtown Fort Collins, downtown, and a CSU stop near the Lory Student Center, according to the Transfort MAX route page — useful once you're already in Fort Collins, but it doesn't run down to Loveland, so it solves the last mile, not the trip. Rideshare apps cover that gap but split a group of 30 into eight or nine separate cars, each paying separately and each vulnerable to the same post-game surge pricing everyone else in the lot is dealing with. Once a group is bigger than what fits in three or four cars, a single charter bus or party bus, booked through Lovelandminibuscompany.com, is usually both the simpler call and the cheaper one per person.
What Size Bus Fits Your Canvas Stadium Group?
Group size is really the only decision here — the drop-off works the same way no matter what's parked at the curb.
| Vehicle | Typical seats | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| Sprinter van | Up to about 14 | A tailgate group or a suite group |
| 25-passenger minibus | Around 20–25 | A neighborhood group or a fan club chapter |
| 35-passenger minibus | Around 30–35 | A workplace group or a large family tailgate |
| Party bus | 15–40 | A rolling pregame with sound and lighting on board |
| Charter bus | Up to 56 | A full section of season-ticket holders |
The full bus and minibus lineup covers everything between those sizes. For a tailgate group hauling grills and coolers, the charter bus's underneath storage bays hold the gear so nobody's holding a cooler on their lap for the drive up Shields Street.
Canvas Stadium Bus Rental Prices
To give you an idea of what a Canvas Stadium run tends to cost: a half-day charter for a Rams home game — pickup in Loveland, a few hours at the stadium, and the ride home — commonly lands somewhere in the $900 to $1,600 range depending on vehicle size and how many hours the group holds the bus. Split across a 30-person group, that's roughly $30 to $55 a head, which is close to what a single parking pass and gas alone would run one car. The number moves with the date, the vehicle, and how far out the game is on the schedule, so it's never a fixed sticker price.
The fastest way to get an actual number for a specific date is to fill out the online quote form or call 970-786-3250 — Lovelandminibuscompany.com can compare vehicles and rates from a network of bus companies serving Loveland in under a minute, no account needed. The Loveland bus rental prices page has more on how mileage, hours, and season affect the number.
Tailgating & Entry Rules at Canvas Stadium
CSU runs its own full-service tailgating operation through REVELxp in the lots around the stadium, on top of whatever a group brings itself, per the athletics department's parking and tailgating page. For groups tailgating on their own, the charter bus's undercarriage bays are the easy answer to hauling grills, folding tables, and coolers up from Loveland without cramming them between seats.
Entry itself runs on a clear bag policy. Per the Canvas Stadium clear bag policy, each person may carry one bag that's clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC and no larger than 12″ × 6″ × 12″, a one-gallon clear freezer bag, or a small clutch no bigger than 4.5″ × 6.5″. Backpacks, coolers, glass containers, and metal water bottles are turned away at the gate — the policy states that guests carrying a bag that doesn't meet the rule are asked to return it to their vehicle before entering, which is one more reason a bus that's staged nearby, rather than a car parked three blocks off in a garage, is the more convenient place to leave it.
Metal detectors run at every Canvas Stadium and Moby Arena entrance, and outside food and drink don't make it past the gate either.
Leaving Canvas Stadium After the Game
The exit is the part every Fort Collins local already expects: 36,500 fans clearing out of a handful of lots and garages onto the same few streets at once, with Shields Street and College Avenue both absorbing the release. Cars parked in Lake Street or South College garage sit through the slow crawl out of a structure with everyone else's car in it. A bus staged nearby doesn't wait on that structure to clear — it pulls up to the agreed curb once the group is out, and the ride home starts while the garage lines are still backed up.
Setting a clear pickup window and a landmark before the group splits up for the game matters here, since cell service inside a packed stadium bowl is unreliable at best. Pick a spot everyone can find without a phone call — a specific gate or corner of Pitkin Street — and confirm it before kickoff, not after the final whistle.
Colorado State Rams Home Games at Canvas Stadium in 2026
Colorado State's 2026 season is the program's first playing a Pac-12 conference schedule, per the CSU Rams 2026 football schedule, and the home slate at Canvas Stadium includes Wyoming on September 5, Southern Utah on September 12, BYU on September 19, Oregon State on October 3 for Homecoming and Family Weekend, San Diego State on October 24, and Boise State on November 7, with a flex-week home date on November 28. Homecoming weekend in particular tends to pull extra alumni traffic into Fort Collins on top of the usual game-day crowd, so it's one of the earlier dates worth locking a bus in for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does a charter bus or party bus drop off at Canvas Stadium?
Canvas Stadium doesn't publish a separate motorcoach curb the way some larger venues do. A private bus drops the group near the Pitkin Street entrance and either stages nearby or leaves and returns for pickup, since it isn't parking in one of the paid lots at all.
Is there a bus-only or oversized-vehicle parking lot at Canvas Stadium?
CSU's one published policy for larger vehicles is the overnight RV and oversized-vehicle reservation in the Moby Arena lot (Lot 195), which holds five 8-foot spaces per reservation starting at 4:00 p.m. the Friday before a home game. For a charter bus specifically, calling CSU Parking & Transportation Services at (970) 491-7041 ahead of the date confirms placement.
Do I need to buy a parking pass if I book a bus?
No. Passes are required for vehicles parking in CSU's lots and garages, but a bus that drops the group and pulls away, or stages off-lot, doesn't need one.
How far is Canvas Stadium from Loveland?
About 14 miles. The fastest route runs north on Taft Avenue into Shields Street, roughly 24 minutes without traffic; US-287 through College Avenue covers similar mileage but tends to slow first on game days.
What's the closest parking garage to Canvas Stadium?
Lake Street Garage, about a 9-minute, 0.4-mile walk on flat ground, followed by South College Garage a bit farther out. Both sell hourly and permit parking on football Saturdays.
What's the bag policy at Canvas Stadium?
One clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC bag no larger than 12″ × 6″ × 12″, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag, plus a small clutch under 4.5″ × 6.5″. Backpacks, coolers, glass, and metal water bottles aren't allowed past the gate.
Is there public transit from Loveland to Canvas Stadium?
Not directly. Transfort's MAX bus rapid transit line connects Fort Collins neighborhoods, downtown, and a CSU stop, but the route starts in Fort Collins and doesn't run down to Loveland.
What size bus fits a Canvas Stadium tailgate group?
A 25-passenger minibus covers a mid-size group, a 35-passenger minibus or charter bus handles a larger workplace or family tailgate, and a full charter bus up to 56 seats fits a whole section of season-ticket holders. Undercarriage storage bays on the larger vehicles hold grills and coolers.
How far in advance should I book a Canvas Stadium bus?
As early as the game is on the calendar, especially for Homecoming (October 3, 2026) and other high-draw dates when vehicles in the Loveland and Fort Collins area book up first. For a regular home Saturday, a couple of weeks' notice is usually workable.
Can the bus wait during the game and pick us up after?
Yes. The bus is held for the group's block of hours, so it can stage nearby during the game and return to an agreed curb and time once the group is ready to leave.
Also planning a trip to Blue Arena or the Larimer County Fair & PRCA Rodeo? Those guides cover their own drop-offs and parking.
Book Your Canvas Stadium Bus Today
Whether it's a full section of Rams season-ticket holders, a tailgate group hauling grills up from Loveland, or a Homecoming weekend group flying in family from out of state, Lovelandminibuscompany.com makes it easy to compare charter buses, party buses, and minibuses for the trip up Shields Street. Fill out the quick online form or call 970-786-3250 any time, any day, to see vehicles and pricing for your Canvas Stadium date — no account required, no obligation.
